A key highlight for IPVS in 2018 was the successful inauguration of March 4th as International HPV Awareness Day. The ‘Give Love. Not HPV’ campaign, led by the IPVS Advocacy Committee, established an annual focal point and sparked an international conversation about HPV and associated cancers online, in universities, on streets and in homes around the world.
As we reach the close of the year, the IPVS Advocacy Committee, chaired by Joel Palefsky, is finalising the 2019 campaign and toolkit ready for independent message testing with stakeholders prior to an anticipated launch on World Cancer Day, February 4th.
Building on the success and key learning from last year, this year the campaign is very much focused on increasing public understanding of the virus; how it is passed on, how it can best be prevented and how awareness and screening can help reduce your risk of cancer. The new campaign theme, ‘The World’s Most Viral Secret’, takes the banality and triviality of some of the worlds most viral online content as a starting point and draws comparison with the low visibility and awareness of HPV which is just as easily shared and much more important to know about.
The campaign call to action is simply to #AskAboutHPV. This will be met with new HPV patient information that can be used on or offline to address basic knowledge gaps in relation to the virus, prevention, screening and treatment.
To check out the direction of the new campaign you can access the working draft of the campaign toolkit . Please be aware that our messaging and assets are subject to some change in response to independent user testing, which will take place in the New Year.
For more information about the campaign and how you can be involved and support International HPV Awareness Day 2019, please contact hpvday@kenes.com
