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SALT LAKE CITY — No one was fired following the recent roll-out of Utah’s new HIV awareness campaign, Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday.
The Utah Department of Health “probably made a mistake” with its recent marketing plan for its “H is for Human” campaign, he said during his monthly PBS news conference. The campaign involved the distribution of condoms with wrappers that contained double-entendres of familiar Utah slogans that were potentially offensive.
“The word ‘SL,UT’ in the age of #MeToo?’” Herbert said Thursday. “All of us ought to be offended by that.”
The governor blasted the campaign before all of the condoms could be delivered to partnering agencies across the valley. Even the HIVandMe.com website was shut down temporarily.
“We all recognize the importance of HIV awareness and AIDS prevention,” Herbert said. “But there’s a right way to go about the awareness campaign for government and there’s probably a wrong way to do it.”
He said the health department’s campaign “did not go through the proper channels for approval.”
Related
Utah governor orders stop to HIV campaign containing sexual innuendo
Gov. Gary Herbert has asked the Utah Department of Health to stop distributing condoms containing potentially offensive slogans.The cardboard packaging containing such messages as “The greatest sex on earth” and “This is the place” would be OK at a novelty shop in the private sector, Herbert said, but “government ought not to do something that many of the people think is offensive.”
He called the messaging “crass,” among other things.
“We went over the line in Utah,” Herbert said.
While the governor’s office was not consulted on the campaign prior to its release last week, members of the state’s HIV planning committee — including health department spokesman, Tom Hudachko — were. Initially, it was believed that Hudachko, who has worked for the state at least 20 years, lost his job because of the pre-emptive approval of the marketing strategy, but Herbert said Thursday that no one has lost their job and he doesn’t anticipate that happening, either.
But the situation is under review and the campaign has been reinstated without the distribution of condoms containing questionable phrases.
