Bedsider at the EC Jamboree, Re-Branding Birth Control

Bedsider: Re-branding
Birth Control
EC Jamboree
October 21, 2013
Lawrence Swiader,
The National Campaign to Prevent
Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
Monday, November 4, 13

Hi, I’m Lawrence Swiader, and I’m the Senior Director of Digital Media at The National
Campaign. I’m delighted to have this opportunity to give you a tour of the Bedsider birth
control support network. But I know that I’m the only thing standing between you and the
cocktail hour, so I’ll make it quick. How many of you have heard of Bedsider?

Great
Question.


I was asked by the great museum thinker, Mike Edson, this question at a conference session
we did together. That question, and my answer--which you can guess was a resounding no-frames my presentation today.

What the %$#& is
going on out there?


Bedsider was created to address the signiﬁcant problem with unplanned pregnancy in the U.S,
especially among young single people in their 20s. Seven in ten pregnancies to single women
aged 18 to 29 are unplanned.
This is the case even though most people think pregnancies should be planned
AND
Most people also say it’s important to them to avoid pregnancy in their lives right now
BUT
Among those having sex and not trying to get pregnant:
19% use no contraception at all and 24% use it inconsistently. [Intentions don’t match behavior]
AND
Among those who say it’s very important to avoid pregnancy now, 34% say it’s likely they’ll
have unprotected sex in near future
With this as the situation The National Campaign in the late summer of 2008 started to look
closely at the reasons that people weren’t getting BC right so we could reduce the number of
unplanned pregnancies. What were the reasons--beyond cost and access to BC--for the
failure?

Tone Fail.


We started our research by taking a look at what's what’s out there now. And the state of
sexual health and behavior change is not pretty. What does this any of this have to do with
sex? The answer is: Not very much at all.
[And why do the people with vaginitis look so happy?]

The birth of Bedsider.


With Bedsider, we’ve tried to address the real issues and hurdles that women face at every
stage, and give them tools they can actually use to stick with their plans to not get pregnant
before they’re ready. Part of it is education, for sure. But it’s education in a voice that makes
sense and comes from the POV of the women we’re speaking to.
Goals:
(1) take the fear and mystery out of birth control,
(2) help women ﬁnd the method of birth control that’s right for them,
(3) help them understand how to use it consistently and effectively, and
(4) to gradually encourage women to consider using more effective forms of birth control over time.


Here’s one view of the Bedsider home page. You can see at the bottom the link to real stories,
where you can compare methods by watching videos of real women, talking about both the
good and the bad aspects of birth control. So you’re able to choose a method by identifying
with a real person, not a medical object.


This is a shot of the method explorer. Our goal was to demystify the objects. What does an
implant look like? Nobody actually knows!


Part of the EC detail page on Bedsider.


Knowing that we can’t be all things to all people, the Method Explorer is shared via an RSS
feed to allow partners to add their own branding and to customize for a local audience.


Another
example.

Mobile
Web.


A view of the method explorer on our mobile web site.


The Where to Get It section is a comprehensive clinic look-up for reproductive health representing a
number of national data sets--and we are adding to it constantly.

Fact or Fiction.


Here’s an example of one of our 24 Fact or Fiction videos. These animations tackle popular
myths like, you can’t get pregnant if you have sex during your period, or if you have sex in a
hot tub. The one you see depicted tackles the myth that men can’t buy lady products like EC.
All the videos end with a doctor debunking the myth. This is also an example of my goal to
create once and produce everywhere. These videos are also found on YouTube, on many
college TV stations running as a PSA, on Navy ships, and on MTV’s site IYSL.


It’s Your Sex Life sharing FoF
content.

Ad Council: the
ultimate in sharing


I’ll ﬁnish with our work with The Ad Council--maybe the ultimate sharing model. With its ad
agency partners they got us pro-bono creative services to create TV, radio, print, and web ads.
Then, they ask TV, radio, web, and print outlets to donate their time and space for the ads.
The result has been millions of dollars worth of nationwide exposure.


This ad does a great job of reﬂecting the values of the Bedsider program.

Does It Work?


The truth is that we don’t know if it works yet. Over the next two years our emphasis will be
placed on understanding Bedsider’s effects. Early results from a year-long study are very
good. Since the November 2011 launch Bedsider has had nearly 4 million visits.
Bottom line: We approach all the content we create with an eye towards sharing to support the
entire reproductive health community so that in the end, it doesn’t matter who completes our
mission--only that it is completed. That’s truly re-branding birth control. So with sharing in
mind, I’d like to show you some more content that you can use. First, EC video from Guy’s
Guide.


Latest video in our Guy’s Guide series on EC.


This poster, almost done, was made in collaboration with with UCSF. You may download the ﬁle from providers.bedsider.org
and print it yourself at two sizes--8 1/2 x 11” or 16 x 24”. UCSF will be distributing hard copies of the poster as will Bedsider
through the Providers site. All you need to do is sign up.


Last, on November 12, 2013 we are launching the ﬁrst in what will be an annual celebration of birth control. It’s a day to say “Thanks, Birth
Control.” All you need to do to participate is use the hashtag on a social media channel like Twitter. And this is a chance to make EC a part of
the birth control conversation. Tweet whatever you like and include the hashtag. Need content? Well, Bedsider’s got you covered. Go to the
site starting November 5 to take one of the digital postcards to share. There are many themes and many ways to say thanks representing in
the cards.

Thank you.

Lawrence Swiader
lswiader@thenc.org
202-478-8574
Twitter: @lawrenceswiader


Thank you.

Bedsider at the EC Jamboree, Re-Branding Birth Control

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