View report page

(7) Impressions of the Campaign.
The campaign was certainly enjoyed by the public. The
unit was seldom without a crowd of some 30 persons, and
frequently several .hundreds crowded abound the-unit. •
Great interest was taken in all the cinema films, and
provided questions were quickly invited and disc-ussion
started the crowd held its interest and remained after the
film. The audience generally showed great concern and
interest and was eager to learn the facts though not quite
so willing to unlearn popular fictions.
Not infrequently questions were irrelevant and turned
on housing and personal economic difficulties, but it was
usually possible to lead from these questions back to the
subject under discussion.
(8) Lessons Learned from the Campaign.
We formed the opinion that the Unit should be;as mobile
as possible. Should we repeat the campaign we would not
remain on any one Site for more than 2 hours. We found
that interest in the unit rises to its maximum after about
half-an-hour and by the end of 2 hours most of the local
people or passers-by have seen it. It is better then.to
move quickly to another district and reap the maximum
interest for a short period on several sites. For this
reason posters and exhibition boards etc. on the sides of
the vans must be quickly detachable. A further'objection
to keeping- the cinema van too long on one site is-that the
neighbouring business houses and market stall-holders are
liable to complain of the disturbance to their trade and the
work of the police may thus be made more difficult.
The aim of all questions and answers was to convey to
the public, as briefly as possible, simple information on
the more vital points relating to food poisoning in such a
way that they would clearly remember then and pass then on
to their friends and relatives.
(9) Number of Persons Attending.
It was calculated that during the 7.days of the Campaign
approximately 6,000 members of the public were in attendance.
Health lectures before the,war held in the local public halls
seldom had an attendance of nore than 50 to 100 people.
On the whole the Campaign was worth while and achieved
its object of conveying information to the public.
64