When posters are good for your health

Do you believe in the life-changing power of communication? Put your band on a street poster, stick your brand on a billboard and there are numerous case studies that show how people pay attention.

Now posters can save lives. People are hearing about a life-changing health treatment simply because someone put it on a poster.

Hepatitis C is a silent killer, so the first step is to make a noise about the cure.

Around 50,000 people in Aotearoa have hep C, which is caused by exposure to infected blood. They’re at risk of serious health problems, including liver cancer and cirrhosis – but many don’t even know they have the condition. They just feel tired and rundown.

That’s pretty depressing but there’s good news. A new treatment called Maviret is now fully funded by Pharmac, and it can cure almost anyone.

Now, if only there was a way to tell hep C sufferers about it…

Patient advocacy group Hep C Action Aotearoa created a nationwide street poster campaign working closely with Phantom Billstickers team to let people know about hep C and its amazing new cure. Then things got interesting.

Hazel Heal is one of the people behind Hep C Action, and she emailed this update from Dunedin:

“Wanted to share a cool story with you about those posters that went up in Dunedin. First, we made the ODT and 6pm News."

“Then, a guy I know was in the Captain Cook, heard a bloke saying he’d had Hep C and was getting sick and tired. Put down your drink and come with me he said, took him over the road to the alley where our poster was. Said read that, see your doctor, and took a photo of him standing beside it."

“The guy did, next day, took the photo to his doctor who had already noticed the posters. But she didn’t know about Maviret or prescribing. The doctor looked it up then and there, the patient got a script, is on treatment, is telling all his friends."

“Every doctor is thought to have around 30 HCV+ patients but only 20% have any interest in treating it, so every new doctor is a big deal.”

Put up posters – make a difference.

Hep C Action and other health experts think New Zealand now has a real chance of totally eliminating this insidious disease. Telling the public is the first step.

And nothing reaches people where they live, shop, work and play like a street poster campaign.

If you have a good cause, a great product or simply a message you want the country to hear, talk to Phantom Billstickers today. Their posters cover the country, and sometimes they even help save lives.