THE "fight the monster" Child Cancer Foundation television advertisements featuring Carterton girl Connor Hourigan has drawn complaints for being too scary. But the complaints have not fazed the foundation, which says despite "seven or eight" complaints criticising the television commercial's ? which liken the disease to a monster ? the appealhas been tracking well ahead of previous years. The partially animated advertisements began screening last Thursday and ran for the final time last night. It features the voices of Temuera Morrison, Kerre Woodham and Mikey Havoc, and has Connor, 4, asking their cartoon alter-egos to "help fight the monster". Foundation chief executive Jim Barclay said while there had been a handful of complaints, hundreds of others, including parents of children with cancer, had responded positively. "We do accept that from time to time people have differences of opinion, but really, the number [of complaints] that we've had is very, very small." The monster analogy was chosen as a way of communicating the difficulties families living with childhood cancer face. Children with cancer do portray their illness as a monster, he said. The foundation aims to raise more than $1 million this year. Today is the biggest day of the appeal, with street collections taking place nationally ? NZ Herald
