Ryan Reynolds has injected his flair for humour into a serious campaign, this time with consultancy, Brooks Bell, for US not-for-profit, Colorectal Cancer Alliance. The campaign encourages people to get a colonoscopy at 45 as a preventative for colon cancer.

The set-up for the nearly seven-minute spot is a bet, apparently made between Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, actors and co-owners of Welsh football team Wrexham AFC, in which Reynolds would broadcast his first colonoscopy if McElhenney learned Welsh. This was outlined by McElhenney in Welsh.

The rest of the film, Lead From Behind, traces Reynolds’ colonoscopy and results. A dangerous polyp was, in fact, found and removed followed by McElhenney’s – which was apparently filmed without his knowledge. The competitiveness between the pair and fun with their post anaesthetic behaviour turn the dual procedures into entertainment – sprinkled with all the information that makes the film a PSA.

Colon cancer is nasty. There have been 15,713 diagnoses in Australia so far in 2022 – 8,300 in men and 7,413 in women, making it 9.7% of all cancers diagnosed. And there have been 5,326 deaths (2,839 male and 2,487 female), 11% of all cancer deaths in 2022. Internationally, there were more than 1.9 million new cases of colorectal cancer in 2020, according to World Cancer Research Fund International, making it the third most common cancer worldwide. In the US, a first colonoscopy is recommended as a matter of course at 45. Any polyps (abnormal cells that can lead to cancer) are removed during the procedure.