MANILA, Philippines - Wyeth Philippines Inc., in collaboration with GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications Inc., was recognized twice at the recently held 44th Anvil Awards. They brought home the Anvil Award of Merit and the Anvil Award Plaque of Recognition for the categories Tools of Public Relations — Special Events and Tools of Public Relations — Sports, Health and Wellness Program.
The awards were conferred in recognition of the public relations campaign “Drowning Out the Noise of a Silent Killer,” an initiative that aimed to communicate the preventability of invasive pneumococcal diseases (bacteremic pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis) to target audiences and initiate public action through vaccination.
“We started this campaign by being aware of the unfortunate fact that there are children who still die of an otherwise preventable disease,” shares Dr Lulu Bravo. Dr. Bravo cites the fact that each year, around 1.6 million die of pneumococcal diseases, half of whom are children less than five years old.
According to WHO and UNICEF, Streptococcus pneumoniae is the leading vaccine preventable cause of death in children worldwide. Globally, two children below five years old die of pneumococcal disease every minute.
“There are significant advances in medicine specifically in the field of vaccination; however, lack of public awareness and misinformation hinder these innovations. And this is exactly what this campaign sought to change,” says Dr. Bravo.
Brad Geiser, director of creatives for GeiserMaclang, shares that the campaign worked within the dichotomous concepts of noise and silence. “All our efforts were directed towards thwarting invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD), the most pervasive killer of children, yet ironically, also among the least known,” says the PR practitioner. “For this reason, we were out to make some noise — first, by giving voice to little known IPD advocates and second, by staging sound solutions created to ignite not just awareness but action among its participants.”
Awarded annually by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines, the Anvil Award symbolizes excellence in public relations and is awarded by a multi-sectoral jury to outstanding public relations programs and tools implemented in the past year. A record 234 entries were received in 2008, with 104 receiving excellence, merit, and recognition awards.