The Centers for Disease Control found that a little humor (combined with the undead) increased public knowledge about emergency preparedness.
Andy Goodman (cofounder and director of The Goodman Center) wrote a piece in the November 2011 issue of his newsletter Free Range Thinking about how the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) went out on a limb and succeeded in attracting record numbers of users to their site…by talking about zombies. Instead of their usual straight-forward information, the CDC released a “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse” blog post and even a graphic novel to educate the public about the importance of emergency preparedness. While not everyone was initially thrilled with the tactic, the CDC experienced previously unforeseen numbers of visitors to their site.
Goodman points out that these kinds of out-of-the-box ideas, while at times a difficult sell, can pay off by attracting new audiences to your campaign. He writes:
“CDC may have set a record for the lowest cost-per-view, but an important question remains. Have all those hits translated into better preparedness for hurricanes? That was the initial objective, after all, so when I got Daigle and Dr. Khan on the phone recently, I put the question to them. ‘We conducted a survey of people who read the blog,’ Daigle told me. ‘Over 90% said that they now know how to make an emergency kit or devise an emergency plan.'”
Read Andy Goodman’s full article here.
Visit the CDC website and learn how to put together an emergency kit (to keep yourself and your family safe from extreme weather, pandemics and of course, zombies) here.
Image from http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp.
