Terry Crews In New Ad to Raise Awareness About Colon Cancer Prevention
President Camacho is coming all the way back from the 25th Century to make sure that you get regular colon screenings.
That is, Terry Crews is reprising his role as the goofy president from the 2006 film, Idiocracy in a new public service announcement for colon health.
The video is a collaboration with Crews and Ryan Reynolds for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance Lead From Behind initiative to educate individuals about the importance and accessibility of preventive colon cancer screenings, according to PEOPLE.
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, “I’ve partnered with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance and Lead From Behind because together we can prevent unnecessary suffering from preventable cancer. The outrageous persona of President Camacho demands the attention this cause deserves. Reprising this role felt like the perfect way to continue to raise awareness and encourage people to get screened.”
Reynolds' creative agency Maximum Effort and Crews' creative company Super Serious created the video with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. It explained the ways that people can be screened for the disease.
In a 2022 video, Reynolds underwent a preventative colonoscopy and several potentially life-threatening polyps were removed from his colon. "This was potentially life-saving for you — I'm not kidding, I'm not being overly dramatic," the doctor told the actor, per PEOPLE. "This is exactly why you do this. You had no symptoms."
Preventative screening "is the number one way to prevent colon cancer, yet about one third of eligible adults are not getting it done," a statement to PEOPLE notes. "In late 2020, the CDC estimated that 68% of colon cancer deaths could be prevented if all eligible people were screened."
The statement added that in 2021, guidelines lowered "the screening age from 50 to 45."
According to Digestive Health Specialists, "African-Americans are about 20% more likely to get colorectal cancer and about 40% more likely to die from it than other ethnic groups."
Award-winning actor Chadwick Boseman died from complications of colon cancer in August 2020 at the age of 43.
