Reproductive health slogan

The best reproductive health propaganda slogans are never unified "correct words", but "empathic expressions" that adapt to different scenarios, target the needs of different groups of people, and do not carry moral judgments - this is the most practical experience I have gained from six years of publicity work in a community health post.

Speaking of which, I encountered a lot of pitfalls when I first started working. I wrote the slogan "Keep yourself clean and stay away from AIDS" based on a template on the Internet, printed it as a poster and posted it at the bus station near the university town. On the third day after it was posted, a male college student wearing glasses came over and said this, which looked like he was scolding a "promiscuous person". He originally wanted to come here last week to get a free HIV test kit, but he was embarrassed to come when he saw the poster, for fear that others would think there was something wrong with him. It was only then that I realized that if we think it is "politically correct", it may first become a thorn in the eyes of the audience.

Oh, by the way, our industry has been arguing for almost three years about whether slogans should be straightforward or gentle. There is a group of people who think that it should be straightforward and heart-breaking. The more impactful it is, the stronger the memory will be. The "Don't go to bed without a condom" that became popular on the Internet in the past two years is the representative of this group. It is indeed very popular among young people, but some people say it is too offensive. Couples who are trying to get pregnant call the hotline to give advice, saying that they are not wearing condoms during normal pregnancy preparations. When they see this, they always feel criticized. The other group insists on being professional and gentle, and uses standardized written language. What it says about "promoting healthy sexual behavior and preventing reproductive system diseases" is correct, but after posting it for half a month, I asked ten people passing by, and nine of them didn't understand what was written on it. I personally feel that there is no need to stick to any particular faction. Just use the appropriate words for the appropriate scenario. There is no universal template.

In addition to young people, the promotion of the elderly group was a blind spot that everyone easily ignored before. Previously, we put up slogans for the elderly activity room in the community. The first slogan was "Pay attention to reproductive health and prevent sexually transmitted diseases." No one asked about it for two months. Later, after chatting with Uncle Zhang who often came to play chess, we found out that the old man and the old lady didn't know what "sexually transmitted diseases" were at all. They thought it was a disease contracted by young people and had nothing to do with them. Later, we changed the slogan to "Protect your private parts even when you are retired. Don't carry itchiness and odor. Free screening is available at the neighborhood committee." The day after it was posted, Uncle Zhang brought his wife to register for screening. He said that the old lady had suffered from itching for almost half a year and was too embarrassed to go to the hospital. Only after seeing the slogan did he realize that this is a normal elderly problem and there is nothing to be ashamed of.

Last time I had dinner with a teacher from the city’s CDC, and she showed me some interesting data. A 2023 survey by the National Disease Control and Prevention System showed that reproductive health propaganda with a tendency of moral judgment will reduce the active consultation rate of the target group by 47%. To put it bluntly, the more you preach from a high position, the less people will want to talk to you. Just like the previous slogan outside the abortion room of the maternal and child health hospital, the first one was "Abortion is harmful to health, cherish fertility." Many little girls saw this when they came out from the operation and squatted in the corridor to cry, thinking that they were blaming her for not loving themselves. Later, we worked with people from the Women's Federation to change the version to "If this is an accident, we will accompany you to recover well, and scientific contraception will not panic next time." When a little girl came for a follow-up checkup last month, she specially stuffed two cups of milk tea at the nurse's station. She said that when she saw this sentence just after the operation, she was no longer so afraid.

I have a lazy way to write slogans now. I never hold back ideas in the office. I just go to the place where the target group lives for two days and chat with them for half an hour. What I want to say comes out naturally. I used to do sex education propaganda for middle schools. I squatted at the school gate and chatted with students after school for two hours. They said they were most annoyed by the words "puppy love is harmful" and "premature sexual intercourse is prohibited". They felt like they were being told a lesson by their parents. Later, the slogan we made was changed to "It's normal to like, and it's only right to protect yourself and the other person." The school teacher reported that the number of students who took the initiative to go to the psychology room to ask about contraception almost doubled, and there were no more sneaky attempts like before.

After all, the slogan is simply a stepping stone. If you don’t preach or judge, people will be willing to take a second look and come in to ask a few questions. Isn’t this purpose of publicity achieved? Oh, by the way, last week we set up a free contraceptive collection point at the night market with the slogan "Have fun tonight, but also have peace of mind." We took out more than 300 boxes in one night, twice as many as when we had the slogan "Scientific Contraception, Prevent Diseases". Do you think it's interesting?