Advertising for regulated health services in Australia is restricted by the following:

False, misleading or deceptive products or claims or is likely to be misleading or deceptive.

Products or services that offer a gift, discount or other inducement or offers a gift, discount or other inducement to attract a person to use the service or the business, unless the advertisement also states the terms and conditions of the offer.

Products or services that use testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business.

Products or services that create an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment.

Products or services that directly or indirectly encourage the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services.

The Australian government has no policy on research into finding a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy - a debilitating disease occurring in young males, resulting in death by age 25. We built The Most Powerful Arm, a robot that would sign signatures via Facebook onto a petition in the handwriting of Jacob Lancaster, a young DMD sufferer who is no longer able to write. Via a live stream, users would see their name being signed while a camera photographed their signature. Their signature is then posted on their Facebook feed triggering others to sign. The arm would tour as a public installation prompting people to sign using their mobile devices. With over 32,000 signatures, it is the most successful health-related petition ever in Australia and became the first Facebook petition to be tabled by the Senate. With no money for seeding, over $7.9 million of earned media was generated and over $24,000 of unprompted donations were made to Save Our Sons because of the campaign. Pharmaceutical company, The Summit, has now begun clinical trials into DMD.

Save Our Sons needed to get in front of the Government to have their case heard rather than drowning in the obscurity of paperwork and applications. To achieve this objective, we needed a public groundswell of support.

We estimated 20,000+ signatures of support would get us in front of the Government.

To generate enough public awareness we’d need the following media coverage:

•40+ pieces of earned media coverage, including 2 TV spots.

•200+ social media posts.

•The call to action to TheMostPowerfulArm.com in all coverage and conversation.

•A reach of 5 million+ in earned media.

We are currently in talks to have the Most Powerful Arm Campaign roll out in the UK. Together with The Duchenne Research Fund, Finch, Save Our Sons and Havas Worldwide London in partnership with DCM London will launch The Most Powerful Arm in cinema. The arm will be placed in the foyer of a major cinema complex in London with the spot screening during the film's previews. Audience members will be invited to sign the petition on the spot. Using geo-tagging we will know the film and time the screening ends so when they leave the cinema their signature will jump the queue and be able to watch their signature being signed first hand.

The campaign will then continue for 4 weeks with a full digital, online and PR campaign.

Users are directed to the website: TheMostPowerfulArm.com where they click to sign the petition, leaving their Facebook details on the petition database. The arm receives and converts this data telling the paper roller to feed the paper and sign the user's name. Via a live stream, users saw their name being signed while a camera photographed it. Their signature is then shared on their Facebook feed, creating a domino effect and triggering others to sign. A completely automated system, there is no human intervention except for changing the paper and pen every 10,000 signatures. The arm then toured as a public installation allowing people to sign using their mobile phones.

Facebook served as a filtering system ensuring people only signed once, and allowed us to verify information on user profiles. This information was used to validate the petition prior to submission to The Australian House of Representatives.

The Most Powerful Arm campaign was extended three times due to popular demand.

The petition resulted in over 32,000 signatures, generating over 6.5 million Facebook impressions. With a 48% conversion rate, users clocked an average dwell time of 2.5 minutes.

The arm was posted on over 300 blogs, covered on primetime Australian television, featured in almost every newspaper and was named the FWA’s site of the day. With no money for seeding, over $7.9 million of earned media was generated.

And over $24,000 of unprompted donations were made to Save Our Sons because of the campaign.

As the most successful health-related petition ever in Australia, it became the first Facebook petition to be tabled by the Senate. Off the back of the campaign, pharmaceutical company, The Summit have now begun clinical trials into the disease.

All of this has given much needed hope to boys suffering from DMD.

We wanted to harness social media to create an innovation that was the physical manifestation of a user’s online action. To do this, we planned to build a robot arm that would sign signatures via Facebook onto a petition directed to the government in the hope of raising awareness and changing their policy. The arm signed in the handwriting of Jacob Lancaster, a 19 year old DMD sufferer, sampled from the last thing he was able to write - a mother's day card. This made Jacob personally involved in every signature. Via a live stream, users would see their name being signed while a camera photographed their signature. Their signature is then posted on their Facebook feed triggering others to sign. The arm would tour as a public installation prompting people to sign using their mobile devices.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a muscle degenerating condition that affects 1 in 3500 Australian children - 99% boys. The Australian Government currently has no policy into research or clinical trials to find a cure for DMD. Money for research, trials and supporting families coping with rare diseases is all raised by charities, or paid for by the families themselves. Save Our Sons and Duchenne Foundation had nearly raised $1.75m, half the money needed to fund clinical trials that could put a stop to DMD. The petition is a call for the Australian Government to step up and match these funds.