# Presentation: 173861

## Getting Women to “See Red”:  The Heart Truth Campaign

## Campaign Development in Brief

**Launched**: September 2002
**Objective**: Increase awareness
**Audience**: Women ages 40-60; health professionals
**Key strategies**: Building broad awareness; creating a connection; partnerships; spotlight events
**Target audience research:  **Leverage women’s interest in their outward appearance to focus on what’s inside (heart); strong wake up call; put a face on heart disease

## Building Broad Awareness

- National public service advertising and media relations to build broad awareness
- Television, radio, and print PSAs
- Airport diorama
- DC Metro Ad

## Creating a Connection—Creative Centerpiece:  the Red Dress

- The national symbol for women and heart disease awareness
- “Heart disease doesn’t care what you wear—it’s the #1 killer of women.

## Creating a Connection—Disseminating Materials to Inform and Educate Women

## Creating a Connection—First Lady Laura Bush as The Heart Truth’s Ambassador

## Connecting to Women Through Fashion

## Building Partnerships to Reach Women

- Non-profit/women’s organizations
- Media
- Corporate
- Government
- Health professionals’ organizations
- Community

## The Power of Partnerships in Reaching Women

**Founding Partners**:
- DHHS Office on Women’s Health
- American Heart Association
- WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease

## Key Media Partner:  Glamour

## Other Magazines

## Corporate

-    RadioShack

**Notes:**
More than 1,000 Wal-Mart stores sold Red Dress Pins for Mother’s Day 2003

More than 120,000 Red Dress Pins and 50,000 Healthy Heart Handbooks purchased from NHLBI  

More than a dozen national corporate partners, including Johnson & Johnson, Albertson’s, and Radio Shack 

Grassroots community activities and events

## Corporate Support

## Government Partners

- DHHS Office on Women’s Health
- DHHS Regional Offices
- State support

- DHHS Regional Event at Mall of America--Minneapolis

*The Heart Truth* Nebraska, Oklahoma and Mississippi

## Health Professionals Partners

- National Black Nurses Association
- American College of Cardiology
- Association of Black Cardiologists
- Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association

## Community Partnerships—Getting the Word Out to Women at the Local Level

***The Heart Truth***** Single City Stop Program**

## Single City Stops

**San Francisco**

**St. Louis, MO**

**Omaha, NE**

**Harrisburg, PA**

**Red Dress Sunday, Kansas City**

## Showcasing the Issue with Spotlight Events and Activities

## Celebrating American Heart Month at the White House—February 2, 2004

## National Wear Red Day—February 6, 2004

## The Heart TruthRed Dress Collection 2004

## The Heart Truth Road Show

**Five Cities**
- Philadelphia
- Chicago
- San Diego
- Dallas
- Miami
- Screened – 4,000
- Foot traffic – 86,000
- 3,501,000 advertising impressions
- 31,296,000 media impressions

## Assessing Effectiveness

- Over 600,000 *Heart Truth* campaign materials disseminated by NHLBI, including 200,000 Red Dress pins
- Uncounted number of materials and pins distributed by partners
- Over 234,760,000 media impressions in January and February 2004
- 28 Single City Programs to date
- Unsolicited corporate interest and support
- 17 awards

## International Appeal

- Romania

- England

- China

- Australia

## Making an Impact?

- AHA National Awareness Survey
- 1997 – 30% aware heart disease is #1 killer
- 2000 – 34%
- 2003 – 46%
- Knowledge gap remains – especially in women younger than 45, Hispanic, and African American women
- “Disconnect” remains – only 13% say heart disease is their own greatest health risk

## Nurturing a Movement

- Could red be the new pink? (Associated Press, Feb. 6, 2004)
- “The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is busy raising awareness through *The Heart Truth*, a nationwide campaign complete with a little pin shaped as a red dress, the new symbol of heart disease in women.” (Newsweek, May 10, 2004)

## Remember the Heart Truth.