Ad campaign to seek COVID ‘buy-in’ from teens, young adults
Whatcom County officials are developing a social marketing campaign to get more people — especially teens and young adults — to follow social distancing guidelines and wear face coverings to fight the new coronavirus pandemic.
Rising COVID-19 infections over the past several weeks have been linked to large parties and other interactions among people age 30 and younger, Health Department officials have said.
County Health Director Erika Lautenbach said the marketing campaign will be aimed at changing behavior among that age group, which includes Millenials and Generation Z.
“In this case, we’re targeting initially 16- to 25-year-olds,” Lautenbach told the Whatcom County Council in a hearing Tuesday afternoon, July 21.
“We’re really trying to understand the attitudes and behavior of that age range,” she said.
Americans already know that they should wear a face covering, practice social distancing and use good hand hygiene to fight the virus, but the problem is “having buy-in,” she said.
“It uses a lot of the same principles as companies use to market their products,” Lautenbach told the Bellingham City Council in an online meeting Monday night, July 20.
“If you think about Smokey the Bear, or seat belt campaigns or condom use during the AIDS crisis — those are social marketing campaigns,” she said.
Councilwoman Pinky Vargas expressed concern about teens she saw swimming during a recent sunny day at Bloedel Donovan Park in Bellingham.
“Our teenagers are not doing social distancing very well and they are not wearing masks at all,” Vargas said during Monday’s discussion.
Lautenbach said direction for the effort will come largely from Steve Bennett, a member of the county’s Public Health Advisory Board and an assistant professor at Western Washington University.
Bennett has a doctorate in public health, environmental health and infectious disease and teaches in WWU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
She called him a premier expert in the field.
“We’re not going to sway everyone, but there is an opportunity to help people understand the benefits and the importance, without just giving them more information,” she said.
Data collection through focus groups, analyzing the results and planning the marketing campaign will take a couple of months, Lautenbach said.
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 8:29 AM.
