Gain bums

As health communication specialists, we take our jobs pretty seriously. Campaign and materials development, especially, are no laughing matter. We conduct extensive literature reviews and hold strategy design workshops and formulate creative briefs. We identify target audiences and contract ad agencies and concept test big ideas and conduct focus group discussions to ascertain materials’ attractiveness, understandability, acceptability. We establish the most appropriate locations and media outlets and communication vehicles and times of day to reach our target audience. We go back and forth on fonts and white space and body copy and slogans and calls to action and literacy levels and whether the visuals should be illustrations or photographs. We debate the most appropriate paper size and weight and the merits of various color schemes. We consider cultural context and barriers to behavior change and whether or not the billboard/pamphlet/flipchart/etc. has the right amount of emotional and rational appeal. We undergo numerous rounds of review and approval from Ministries and funders and content experts. We get bids from printing companies and oversee print jobs and ensure the appropriate logos are included in the right order and proportions. We evaluate impact. We’re trained in this stuff. We love it. We’re building entire careers out of it.

Which is why I find it so funny that the most effective pieces of communication I’ve seen in Uganda to date are plain old, bold black font on white background, gloss-less, graphic-less, less than 10 words, wrapped around a street pole near you, couldn’t have taken more than 10 minutes to produce from conceptualization to printing, A4 size pieces of unadorned printer paper. With messages you can't help "butt" notice.