Novartis has launched a German poster campaign to raise public about meningococcal bacteria and vaccinations.
Backed by the Berlin Centre for Travel and Tropical Medicine, the campaign’s posters will be displayed in 350 Sanifair toilets in Tank & Rast GmbH Travelers service stations across the country.
The campaign was conceived in-house by Christian Wieszner and Björn Kapplinghaus, of Novartis Vaccines’ Eastern Europe and Central Europe marketing divisions, and its organisers expect the posters to be seen by some 62 million people by the end of March.
Meningococcal bacteria can be transmitted through droplet infection when coughing, sneezing, or kissing. It is a particular risk when the immune system is weakened by other infections, allowing the bacteria to multiply, and potentially leading to meningitis and blood poisoning.
The company’s meningococcal B vaccine, Bexsaro, won European approval last year and was launched in Germany in December.
The campaign is not the first time Novartis Vaccines has used motorway service areas as the backdrop and follows its 2009 motorway campaign educating the public about seasonal influenza.
A survey among travellers at that time showed that nearly half of the respondents could recall details of the poster. The survey found participants predominantly in favour of posters educating them about health risks.