"Healthy Penis" Posters Inspire Rise in Syphilis Tests

Who knew that cartoon penises could inspire people to get tested for syphilis? Apparently, a bunch of scientists do. San Francisco hospitals did a marketing campaign in local gay newspapers and hangouts featuring a friendly, healthy cartoon penis that taught everybody about syphilis. Over the next two years, the numbers of men getting tested for […]
Image may contain Comics and Book

Pridesc_1 Who knew that cartoon penises could inspire people to get tested for syphilis? Apparently, a bunch of scientists do. San Francisco hospitals did a marketing campaign in local gay newspapers and hangouts featuring a friendly, healthy cartoon penis that taught everybody about syphilis. Over the next two years, the numbers of men getting tested for syphilis shot up dramatically.

Say the pleased researchers, led by Katherine Ahrens:

Our evaluations strongly suggestthat the Healthy Penis social marketing campaign was effective inaugmenting syphilis testing and increasing syphilis awareness andknowledge in the San Francisco gay and bisexual community. This effect might have contributed to decreased syphilisincidence in 2005.

I'm looking forward to public service "healthy penises" in Drawn Together or some other Adult Swim offerings. Anything for public health, you know?

Scientific study on "healthy penis" campaign [via PLoS Medicine]