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Western Washington University employees recently presented at the Pacific Northwest Social Marketing Association’s (PNSMA) 8th annual SPARKS conference on the marketing strategy behind "COVID-19 IRL," the AS��������’s student-directed COVID messaging campaign. The presentation was delivered by Western Washington University Assistant Professor of Public Health Steve Bennett and graduate student, AS Communications Director and Student Trustee Hunter Stuehm, who have both played active roles in the campaign’s development and implementation.

The AS�������� began developing the COVID-19 IRL brand in July 2020 , when it became clear college students were being villainized across the country.

“College students, and young adults in general, were being seen as a threat rather than a threatened population. Students knew what they should be doing, but there was little information on what COVID-19 safety precautions looked like in real life,” Stuehm said. Since last summer, COVID-19 IRL has grown from just a student-to-student campaign at Western into a partnership with the Whatcom County Health Department, Bellingham Technical College, Whatcom Community College, and Central Washington University.

In attendance at the conference were marketers and leaders from several public and private agencies across the region, sharing social marketing campaigns related to health, safety, the environment, and equity. Bennett and Stuehm presented on the conference’s first day, describing that the campaign's marketing strategy emerged from Bennett’s COVID-19 prevention-behaviors survey conducted over summer.

COVID-19 IRL remains active, though with reduced posting over the intersession, via the AS��������’s Instagram page @wwu_as. Posts will continue through winter quarter with a vaccine crash course, tips for navigating intimate relationships with those outside of your household, and information on how students can participate in social movements through the pandemic.