The Heart Foundation has edited a confrontational ad campaign in the face of a social media storm over suggestions people who do not look after their heart health therefore do not love their families.

Key points: The ad features a mother telling a child she was lying when she told him she loved him

The ad features a mother telling a child she was lying when she told him she loved him It has been criticised for lacking sensitivity and blaming people for their illnesses

It has been criticised for lacking sensitivity and blaming people for their illnesses The Heart Foundation said its "intention was from a good place"

The campaign, called Heartless Words, features a scene in which a mother puts her child to bed at night and says, "Every time I told you I loved you I was lying — you are not my priority".

A man washing dishes with his wife tells her, "I promised you my heart and I've given it away", and a woman speaking to a young child says, "Because it's not just my heart that I don't care about, it's yours".

After initially defending the ad, the Heart Foundation has since edited it to remove that scene.

"We apologise if we've caused offence to anyone, we appreciate the feedback and we have responded by no longer using the scene where a mother says to a son that she had told him she loved him but that she had lied," Heart Foundation Victoria chief executive Kellie-Ann Jolly said.

"If people took advantage of the new Heart Health Check MBS item, this could prevent more than 76,500 heart events over the next five years (including heart attacks and strokes), and more than 9,000 deaths. That is a lot of human suffering that could be avoided.

"That is why our message is that looking after your heart means you are also looking after the hearts of those who love you.

"We realise that not everyone will agree with our approach. However, our intention is from a good place, to save lives."

The campaign has been criticised by some health professionals and sparked outrage online, including from people who had lost loved ones to the disease.

On Twitter, one man who said his wife had died after a sudden heart attack wrote:

"I don't want our son watching or hearing this type of rubbish advertising. His mother loved him very much and this insensitive vile is a disgrace to your organisation."

Another wrote:

"My dad was a health & fitness fanatic who had regular checks to ensure his heart was healthy. He died from a myocardial infarction at 66. His last words to me were 'I love you'. But I guess he didn't love me enough.

"I get the intent but the execution is breathtakingly offensive."

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'Complacency requires us to have this conversation'

Melbourne University youth mental health professor Patrick McGorry, a founding director of Headspace, said the campaign represented classic victim-blaming.

"So people are to blame for their illness? That's been precisely the basis for stigma in mental illness and addictions," he said on Twitter.

"Same for suicidal patients in EDs where they are blamed and put to the back of the queue."

Sue Walker, the head of obstetrics at the University of Melbourne and Mercy Hospital, told ABC Radio Melbourne it was "a little bit reductionist to suggest that people died because they didn't care for themselves or they didn't care for others".

Dr Walker, whose father died of heart disease, said:

"To have a voice from the grave suggesting he died because he didn't care for himself or for us perhaps lacks a little sensitivity."

Earlier on Tuesday, Heart Foundation chief executive John Kelly conceded the campaign was "shocking and confronting".

But he said that was necessary to kick off a conversation about heart disease, which killed 51 Australians every day.

"Some people will take offence and we apologise for that. But the level of complacency requires us to have this conversation," Professor Kelly told ABC Radio Melbourne.

He said the campaign was designed to encourage people to have their blood pressure and cholesterol checked and risk factors assessed.

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