Making hearing protection something teens would talk about

The situation. Noise-induced hearing loss is preventable. CDC wanted teens to protect their hearing, plan ahead for noisy places, and talk about it with their friends. The challenge was making that advice sound like something a teen would pass along, not a warning from a federal agency.

What I did. I managed a campaign built around three teens talking to other teens about protecting their hearing. I set the campaign goals, timeline, and budget, wrote the scripts, handled CDC clearance, and coordinated production and delivery. The campaign produced three videos, each with an audio-described version and a transcript. It also included social media graphics for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (now X), and Snapchat, and posters for classrooms and community bulletin boards.

The call that mattered. The campaign was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every teen involved had to be vaccinated (when vaccines for teenagers were still new), which made sourcing talent challenging. When we reached out to talent agencies, they told us they didn't track vaccine status. So we recruited teens through our employees' families. Our staff worked in public health, so their families already supported vaccination.