The zombie apocalypse is a fad that has surrounded the entertainment business. Over the years this popularity has spread through video games, TV series, movies and many other media outlets. In May of 2011,this fad hit the Center for Disease Control. By latching on to this popular theme, they found a way to relay information about emergency planning in a campaign to target younger demographics. The CDC slogan for the Zombie Awareness Campaign is “If you are prepared for a Zombie Apocalypse, you are prepared for anything”. Their focus is promoting emergency relief and prevention of all scale crises.
With multiple different public relation channels being used to promote this campaign, the CDC uses social media as one of their main forms to relay information. In this day and age, social media is one of the top public relations outlets. More and more often, when crises occur, social media is where the news breaks, and with such instantaneous communication, social media becomes publicity. The Zombie Awareness Campaign uses social media in such a way that it fits into the action assembly theory of public relations. All behavior is logical to the person doing the behaving, so in order to understand behavior we have to first know how people think. To do so, we use three key indicators; cognitive structure, content and cognitive processes. The ability to learning what their target market is interested in, as well as how they will accept the information shows in the theory itself. The CDC looked at the fact that social media is an easy way to have communication with a younger generation also relating the emergency to being prepared for a Zombie Apocalypse is how they tapped into the cognitive process of their followers. The campaign uses social networking to reach their demographics and relay information to prepare people in case of emergencies.
CDC zombie apocalypse is featured on many of their social media sites, for example their Facebook page has multiple links and facts that inform the public of cris
is awareness. Facebook is one of their main media sites with a following of over 22,000. This gives them the ability to reach the mass numbers of people with important information. Using a theme allows them to grab the attention of the younger demographic. The CDCs zombie apocalypse is also featured on LinkedIn, Twitter, Pintrest, and Public Health Matters Blog. All of their post on their social media sites link straight back to the CDC website giving more information on the subject at hand.
The idea of being zombie prepared is a cleaver campaign and seems to fit with the popular interest of the public. CDC way of getting information to the public is very efficient and they produce important information that is beneficial to all demographics. Public relations is the maintenance of a favorable public image by a company, and the CDC does a good job of keeping people informed and prepared for all emergencies.
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