Public Awareness Campaign Results

The national public awareness campaign has worked to put CFS in the public eye and provide information to help support the four million Americans who have it.

The first-ever national public awareness campaign for CFS is still going strong. Eighteen months after the official November 2006 launch, the campaign continues to generate considerable media attention, educate Americans and change attitudes about this life-altering illness.

Whether you live in Denver or Dallas, Boston or Bakersfield, chances are you have seen or heard about CFS in the news thanks to the campaign. Considered small by national standards, with just $6 million in funding from the CDC, the “little campaign that could” is reaching some exciting milestones.

More than 2,000 stories about CFS have appeared in print, broadcast or online media, delivering an amazing 500 million audience impressions. The TV public service announcement (PSA) has aired almost 14,000 times, and the radio PSAs more than 25,000 times, reaching an estimated 250 million audience impressions so far. Print and online ads together delivered another 420 million impressions. The online banner ads on WebMD, Ladies’ Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens websites resulted in nearly 16 million people accessing the awareness campaign website for information about CFS over a three-month period. And about 150,000 copies of campaign materials have been downloaded so far. Add to that the more than 6.7 million people who trafficked the 30+ public venues and medical conferences where “The Faces of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” photo exhibit has traveled, and you start to get an idea of the scope of awareness this campaign has delivered so far.

Of course, there’s still a lot of work ahead of us to educate all Americans that CFS is a serious illness that deserves the same kind of attention as other debilitating chronic illnesses like MS and Parkinson’s disease. Some patients are still treated dismissively by their doctors or ridiculed by their family members and co-workers. And more than 80 percent of Americans with CFS still haven’t been diagnosed. These things have to change. So over the coming 16 months, before the CDC’s sponsorship of the campaign is scheduled to end, we’ll work vigorously to get the most mileage from the campaign’s ability to elevate CFS as a public health concern. And even after the official awareness campaign comes to a close, we’ll continue to work, as always, to keep CFS in the public spotlight and to provide vital information about CFS for the American public and the medical community.

For more information about the national CFS public awareness campaign, visit www.cfids.org/sparkcfs.

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The CFS public awareness campaign is working! Keep up the progress in bringing CFS awareness from the margins to the mainstream. Donate now.