Just like my Dad, I considering my bathroom as a better reading room than any library. There’s something about having a 2x2m space where you can’t be disturbed and there’s no distractions. Your mind wanders. You remember relatives birthdays. You finally work out what happened in Donnie Darko. You crack the toughest brief. And then you clean up and leave.

But if we paid more attention to our actual activity in the porcelain palace we could save our own lives. Consider the following diseases, most of them deadly if not detected early, which all have syptoms recognisable while in the process of #1′s and #2′s:

Appendicitis, bladder stones, cancer (liver, bladder, gastric, endometrial, pancreatic, peptic, renal, ureter, prostate, testicular, ovarian and colon), chlamydia, cirrhosis, Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, endocartisis, enlarged prostate, gallstones, gonorrhea, hepatitus (all strains), hernia, herpes, leukemia, malaria, ovarian cysts, peritonitus, tetanus, tuberculosis and urinary tract infection.

Pardon the pun, but this list is just floating on the surface.

The scary thing is, often when we notice irregularities we put it down to tiredness, ageing or Mexican food when it could actually be the first sign of something much more serious. As a guy, I know we have a tendency to ignore things until they become major problems. And by then it is much too late.

So, my idea is, what if toilet paper manufacturers (I’m looking at you Kleenex and Sorbent) used their toilet rolls as a community service announcement to inform people on what to look out for with common diseases. For example, the below for prostate cancer:

These could be generated for any number of diseases with information on:

- why people should be concerned ie. the prevalence of the disease
- what people should look for ie. the symptoms.
- where people can get more information ie. contact doctor or go to www….

We know that many people ignore early symptoms of serious diseases. We know that early recognition and action dramatically increases the chance for survival. We know that this is a blank canvas, in a place where people like to read, with relevant infomation at a relevant time which can save lives.

So toilet roll manufacturers, it’s not going to cost you much more to print on the rolls. You would only have to ditch the flowers, dolphins and logos currently printed on rolls for text. Sure, it won’t make me feel warm and fuzzy like a puppy dog will but a puppy dog won’t keep me alive when I’ve got cancer. We know that you like to appear community minded (Kleenex supports Guide Dogs Australia and the Children’s Medical Research Institute). This is your opportunity to be the leader in your category for monitoring the health of your users. Hey, and if your users live longer = more sales. Everyone wins!

Let’s see who has the guts to roll it out!

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