Media accused of whipping up Swine flu panic to sell papers

Swine flu has featured heavily in the press over the past two weeks grabbing numerous headlines.

The London Lite ran a headline on its frontpage at the height of the scare last week claiming that, in the worst case scenario, as many as 94,000 Londoners could die.

Brand Republic took to the streets to find out whether the public are worried about it or if they are writing it off as a media frenzy that will blow over.

Most people interviewed said they are concerned, but not overly worried at the present moment.

A number of people said they thought the media has blown it out of proportion although some thought the coverage was necessary to keep people informed.

One person argued that society gets the media it deserves and that people love hearing about "crazy stuff", while another thought it might be a Government plan to detract from financial woes.

So far there have been 34 confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK, with four in Scotland -- including one case of person-to-person transmission.

The Department of Health has launched a public health ad campaign for swine flu across TV, print and radio.

The campaign, created by DDB London and bought by Mediaedge:cia, uses the line "catch it, kill it, bin it", a slogan first created by Chick Smith Trott in 2007.