A stunning and extraordinary event occurred at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a few days ago.  Their social media gurus launched a bizarre campaign to prepare for a Zombie Apocalypse.  I am not making this up.

The site "went viral" and experienced such an overwhelming response, that their server crashed temporarily.  Their Twitter feed catapulted into a huge trend as well. If their purpose was to generate interest, it was a tremendous success.  Quoting the campaign, 

"Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That's right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you'll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency."

It took a lot of courage for this agency to use gut-busting humor to raise awareness in emergency preparedness.  I can just imagine the staff meeting where this idea was cooked up.  It could be a way to reach a whole new population-and a huge one.  Or it could have been a PR disaster and made the CDC into a laughing stock. But someone knew the social media culture, took the chance, and now the CDC is known for disaster preparedness by throngs of Americans who may not have known where such information exists. According to a May 20 blog post in the Wall Street Journal, "as of [May 20], the CDC reported the post - advising people to stock up on food and water and first aid supplies to survive a zombie attack - had gotten nearly 1.2 million page views, compared to about 1,000 to 3,000 hits a CDC blog post usually gets over its entire lifespan of 10 days or so."  The site contains buttons to click on for "real" preparedness information and free logos for the public to use.  Here's one: 

And one of the most impressive facts about this effort, says the CDC, is that the campaign "cost zero."  A marketer's dream.

It won't end here. The CDC is sponsoring a video contest "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse."  They say on the website that information about the contest is forthcoming.  YouTube is bound to be replete with Zombie advice very soon.

So the question remains for other agencies that need to get the word out--what is the risk vs. reward?  Has this idea been used once now and it would fall flat next time? Or should life-saving information find its way to the public in unique ways if necessary?  I'd love to hear your thoughts. Post a comment.