Page 40 - Modern Healthcare (January 2020)

Racy condom
packaging
squashed in Utah
exual innuendo apparently doesn’t play in
SUtah. At least not in taxpayer-funded public health
AP PHOTO
campaigns.
Condom wrappers with cheeky phrases that put
a sexy spin on state pride met a quick demise in the “This is the place” against a bed in the background; and
Beehive State as Gov. Gary Herbert ordered the state “Enjoy your mountin’.” The condoms were part of the
health department to stop distributing them as part of an department’s “HIV and Me” awareness campaign.
HIV-awareness campaign. While sexual innuendo may meet resistance in Utah,
The intervention came hours after the designs it was rewarded here at Modern Healthcare in the 2019
became public this month. Herbert, a Republican, said Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards.
he understands the importance of educating residents SPM Marketing & Communications garnered the Gold
about HIV prevention, but doesn’t approve using sexual Award for Integrated Campaign/Advocacy for its “Save
innuendo in a taxpayer-funded campaign, the Associated Yours” sexually transmitted infection campaign for the
Press reported. Chicago Department of Public Health, with ads urging
Among the slogans the governor objected to were: “Save the buns,” “Save the wieners” and “Save the
“Greatest Sex on Earth,” a spin on the state’s license-plate kitties” followed by “When you get tested for STIs” with
ski slogan “Greatest Snow on Earth”; “SL,UT,” a play on pictures of the relevant foodstuffs (and pet).
abbreviations for Salt Lake and Utah; “UINTAH sex?”; Obviously, Gov. Herbert wasn’t one of the judges. l

If it’s winter, it means the crows

have descended on Mayo

hen winter creeps into referring to the patients who come to Mayo for treatment
WRochester, Minn., it’s time. from around the world.
Time for thousands of crows. The crew tries “to keep the downtown area free of the
In mid-November they descend en masse on the city’s mess that they create,” Michael Schaber, park operations
downtown (and Mayo Clinic campus) splashing souvenirs of manager for the city, told Outliers via email. Schaber
their presence on sidewalks, vehicles, streets and buildings. said they “utilize crow distress calls, blank pistols, high-
In other words, crow poop. powered lasers and lights, airsoft guns and any other
Fighting the problem created by this murder of crows (as method that may keep the crows from roosting in the
such clusters of the birds are called) has become a $40,000 downtown area.”
line item in the city’s budget. Rochester along with other Schaber said that because Mayo Clinic is a private
cities use nonlethal means to fend off the winged invaders, institution, it handles the foul fowls on its property.
including a special crew known as the “crow patrol,” “To keep the number of crows at bay around our
according to a recent story on NPR. campus, Mayo Clinic does use motion-activated
While congregating crows are a problem in other cities, ultrasonic devices to discourage crows from roosting
Rochester’s main reason for trying to discourage the birds in the trees in high-traffic areas,” Mayo Clinic said in an
is the Mayo campus, crow patrol member Sally Vehrenkamp email. l
told NPR. “It’s very disgusting for them to walk in,” she said,

ISTOCK
36 Modern Healthcare | January 27, 2020