Ads about flu aim to educate, not scare

It would be a tricky proposition for the most skilled marketing whiz: Raise awareness of a potentially deadly public health problem without scaring the bejesus out of the audience or alienating them with false alarms.

Starting this week, the state Department of Health is tackling just such a challenge as it launches a new advertising campaign focusing on a potential pandemic influenza outbreak.

Through $650,000 worth of paid spots on television, radio and in weekly newspapers in Spokane and across the state, health officials are hoping to educate people about basic infection transmission – and to urge them to do something concrete about it.

“Really, this is about being prepared,” Mary Selecky, the state Secretary of Health said Wednesday. “Preparing now could save lives later.”

Health experts worldwide believe a global outbreak of a new influenza virus for which there is no vaccine and no immunity – a pandemic – is inevitable, but not imminent.

“It’s a very real threat and we have to prepare for it,” Selecky said. “But it is not here.”

In the meantime, state health officials say people can head off future problems by changing attitudes and behaviors now.

The new advertisements, which will include nearly 650 television spots and nearly 500 radio spots in the Spokane region, as well as print advertisements, will focus on basic hygiene, germ transmission and home preparation.

Starting in March, a flier stressing similar messages also will be mailed to parents of children up to age 6 across the state, said Tim Church, a state spokesman.

People need to learn to cough into their sleeves, not their palms, for instance, and to wash their hands far more frequently than they do. Another focus is the stoic attitude that sends sniffling, sneezing, feverish folks into the workplace.

“We want to stress the whole thing about not going to work when you’re sick,” Church said. “It’s OK to stay home.”

The advertisements also emphasize stockpiling supplies from food and water to medication and pet food, enough for a family to survive unaided for at least a week.

In the event of a pandemic, schools likely would be closed and grocery stores might not be able to get shipments of food, Church noted. People need to be prepared to meet their own needs for at least a while.

The state paid for about $60,000 worth of advertising time in the Spokane region. Ads airing this week will be seen during television shows such as “Jeopardy,” “Oprah,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Ellen.”

The target audience is working adults, Church said, particularly women.

“Women tend to make the health care decisions in families,” Church said.

The ads were developed after a series of nine statewide focus groups involving up to 200 people held last summer, including a session in Spokane. Participants were asked about knowledge of and fears about pandemic influenza, Selecky said.

Most people involved wanted basic, straightforward information about the likelihood of a pandemic and what to do if – or when – it occurs, she said. Asked who should deliver the information, participants nominated state health officials like Selecky – and even television personalities like the Dr. Derek “McDreamy” character from the show “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Selecky said she believed the campaign, funded through Washington’s $4 million share of federal grants targeting pandemic influenza, strikes the right note.

“We want to inform people without scaring them,” she said.