Civil Service in the news
Communications award - 'Want Respect? Use a Condom' teenage pregnancy campaign
The innovative 'Want Respect? Use a Condom' campaign, which aims to encourage teenagers to make informed decisions about sex and reduce pregnancy rates, picked up this year's award for communication.
Building on the successful 'R U Thinking?' campaign, 'Want Respect?' targets older teenagers who are already having sex and are most at risk of unplanned pregnancy.
Winning respect
Experience and research shows that teenagers rarely respond well to people in authority simply telling them the health risks of unprotected sex, and advising them against it. They are far more likely to act responsibly if it will gain them the approval of their peers.
Based on this, the idea behind the campaign was to link using a condom with getting respect. This was emphasised in the sign-off for collateral: “Want Respect? Use a condom.”
Laurence Russ, who heads up DCSF's youth marketing team, says that “simply telling teenagers to use a condom, because it will lower the risk of pregnancy or catching a disease, doesn't work. However, by getting to know our audience we found out that respect has real currency with them.”
Spreading the word
For this approach to work, messages had to come from the teenagers' own world - and not directly from the Government or other areas of authority. Laurence explains: “we used an integrated and highly targeted approach to surround the audience with the message in the media they consume and would respond to.”
These media included:
- highly-targeted TV and radio adverts using true to life storylines and a gritty, realistic style
- adverts in youth magazines in a street art style
- PR targeted at youth and urban music media
- ambient street art in skate parks and youth clubs
- partnerships with influential brands, for example the King Apparel clothing label
Artists from the urban music scene also got involved in the campaign, delivering the key messages through niche media.
While in a competition called “Rhyme 4 Respect”, teenagers were invited to write their own lyrics about safe sex and relationships. The winning entries were then recorded by numerous hip-hop artists, and the compilation distributed to teenagers in the target areas.
Changing attitudes
The campaign has achieved huge recognition among its target audience, and successfully changed attitudes. In the latest survey, 62% of the audience agreed that it would make them more likely to use a condom in future.
Laurence was thrilled that the award went to a campaign he felt “put aside the usual constraints of Government to deliver something that really works for the target audience.”
“By being bold and understanding our audience, we've shown how communications really can make a difference to some of the toughest challenges facing Government. I'm delighted that the civil service awards have recognised such an innovative campaign, and I'd like to congratulate everyone who has worked with us to make it such a success.”