As Halloween approaches, Exact Sciences is warding off a particularly terrifying occurrence: skipping colorectal cancer screening.
A newly launched campaign touts the company’s Cologuard test as a non-scary option to keep up with regular screenings, which national guidelines recommend beginning at age 45 for those at average risk of colon cancer.
To bolster the campaign’s claims, Exact has recruited someone with plenty of experience with all things eerie: Matthew Lillard, the “scream king” best known for his roles in spooky late-’90s and early-aughts films like “Scooby-Doo” and “Scream,” the latter of which inspired the “SCREEN” campaign’s name.
A campaign video plays on classic scary-movie tropes: After hearing repeated knocking at the door, Lillard nervously walks through a shadowy home, calling out “Hello?” and picking up an umbrella for protection. He opens the door to reveal a bright and sunny day, with a delivery man holding out his Cologuard box.
The duo then discusses a few particularly scary sights: an ax murderer on the loose, a grown man with frosted tips or—gasp!—forgetting to screen for colon cancer after the age of 45. The delivery man goes on to list the benefits of Exact’s noninvasive, no-prep-required test, adding, to an unamused Lillard, “No need to ‘Scream’ when you can screen, am I right?”
“I know a lot about scary situations—and I can say from my own experience using the Cologuard test that colon cancer screening isn’t one of them,” Lillard attested in Monday’s announcement. “For me, screening with Cologuard was a simple and convenient way to be proactive about my health. On the flip side, I’ve seen the impact of cancer up close, and I’m proud to partner with Exact Sciences and Cologuard to help people take action against this horrible disease.”
Exact’s recruitment of 55-year-old Lillard to the cause follows Guardant Health’s tapping another famous face familiar to the Generation X and millennial cohorts to raise awareness of its own colon cancer screening option.
The Guardant campaign, which launched in July, sees “Dawson’s Creek” star James Van Der Beek—who recently shared his stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis—encouraging regular screening and praising the benefits of the Shield blood test.
The move to appeal to younger audiences in colon cancer screening campaigns comes as recent studies have shown that early-onset cases of the disease are surging, even as global colorectal cancer rates largely stabilize among those 50 and older. As of 2019, per the American Cancer Society, diagnoses in people younger than 55 made up about 20% of all new cases, representing a doubling in the rate since 1995.