LACDPH Launches Two Social Marketing Campaigns

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health launches two innovative media campaigns to combat the County’s rising rates of sexually transmitted diseases.

The public education campaigns, partially funded by the County’s Board of Supervisors, repeatedly and strongly urge young, sexually-active women of color and men who have sex with men (MSM) to get tested for STDs regularly. The campaigns incorporate regular advertising in newspapers, on billboards and buses, but also use non-traditional guerilla marketing techniques like graffiti murals, sidewalk chalkings, drink coasters, mirror stickers  in night clubs and gyms to reach the intended audiences. Custom Web sites are also utilized to get the message across to these difficult-to-reach audiences.

The campaign’s two primary audiences are slated to receive different messages, tailored to their needs and behaviors, in both English and Spanish. The women’s campaign, “I Know.”/“Yo Sé.” features confident African-American and Latina women who know they can fight serious health problems such as chlamydia and gonorrhea by getting tested, and if need be, cured. The MSM campaign proclaims “Check Yourself,” urging gay and bisexual males to get regularly tested for syphilis.

The campaigns target women of color and MSM audiences because they are most at risk. Last year, the County recorded 976 cases of [early] syphilis in gay and bi-sexual men, which represents a 365% increase since 2001.

In L.A. County, African American and Latina women bear the largest burden of reported STDs of any population. There are more than 30,000 cases of chlamydia in L.A. County every year, and more than 5,000 cases of gonorrhea. In 2006, L.A. County recorded more than 22,000 cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea among African American and Latina women younger than 25. (*These totals include conservative estimates of unreported cases as well)

The process that DPH engaged in to develop these campaigns is unprecedented in the recent history of public health in Los Angeles County. The media campaigns were developed using an evidence-based approach -- as is done in the commercial sector to develop marketing campaigns -- and extensive research, including the scientific literature, DPH’s public health data, and focus groups with the affected populations, including working closely with community organizations, service providers, DPH’s own scientific staff, and marketing professionals. The campaign was conceptualized and developed by Fraser Communications in Santa Monica.

These communications campaigns do not stand in a vacuum. They are part of a comprehensive public health strategy that includes augmented Public Health Investigator field staff to follow cases to their source; additional field staff placed at community agencies that have rapport with MSMs and have detected large numbers of syphilis cases in their clients, and enhanced testing at the men’s jail, where DPH has previously detected high rates of syphilis.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have shown their commitment to solve these problems by providing DPH with the resources to do the right kinds of research to develop the right campaigns to reach the right people in the right places with the right messages. Sustaining this commitment will help lift the STD burden from our communities.