This past Halloween, dozens of communities from Florida to California were linked by a common goal: preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse.
Allison Manning, a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio, wrote that officials in nearby Delaware County turned their annual preparedness drill into a toxic spill on Oct. 31, turning residents into the walking dead. Twenty volunteers typically show up for a practice exercise; this time, they had more than 200—in full zombie makeup, doing the characteristic shuffle and moans. (During the drill, two firefighters were turned into zombies to simulate the kind of contamination that could happen in a real toxic spill.)
The inspiration for all this was a “Zombie Preparedness” campaign launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released last spring. (Who knew the CDC has a sense of humor?) The campaign ultimately went viral, exposing millions of earthlings to messages of readiness (puns intended ... this is, after all, a zombie story).
In his monthly online journal Free-range Thinking, writer Andy Goodman reveals how the zombie campaign got hatched. It’s an interesting case study for anyone who is engaged in trying to educate the public—and who has a shoestring budget. As Goodman tells it, CDC communications staff huddled up last April to think of new ways to break through the usual public apathy before the approaching hurricane season. One team member recalled tongue-in-cheek tweets during the Japanese nuclear disaster asking whether increased radiation would spawn a new wave of zombies. An idea was born.
Goodwin writes that the CDC’s communications staff brought the idea to their boss, Ali Khan, M.D., MPH, the assistant surgeon general and director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. Their plan: Under Khan’s byline, the Public Health Matters blog on the CDC website would focus on zombie preparedness as a thinly disguised way to talk up preparedness in general. The blog went up May 16. The initial reaction was negative, with even personal attacks on Khan. How could the CDC waste resources on such a frivolous approach to a serious topic? But Khan stood firm, kept the blog up and continued with the campaign.
And then something amazing happened. The media picked up the story (who can resist “zombie” in the headline of a news story?), with more than 3,000 articles and broadcasts spreading the message. The CDC website crashed from so many visitors but was quickly fixed. Ultimately, the website had more than 2 million hits in just the first week, and the CDC’s independent media consultant estimated the value of the media impressions at $3.4 million—all with a direct cost of $87 for a stock photo of a zombie.
OK, it’s a clever idea, but did it really make a difference? Increasing participants in one Ohio disaster drill by 10 times is one indicator. And Khan reports that a survey of people who read his initial blog showed that 90 percent now know how to make an emergency kit or plan. That’s a pretty good start.
Keith Griffiths can be reached at editorinchief@emergencybestpractices.com.
Is zombie preparedness in your future next Halloween?
To become part of the CDC’s “Zombie Task Force,” visit cdcfoundation.org/zombies.
To view a truly inspired treatise on the topic from the University of Florida, go to astro.ufl.edu/~jybarra/zombieplan.pdf.
