The "No Rubba, No Hubba Hubba" campaign just doesn't cut it with more than half the young people it is designed to appeal to.
A poll by 18Ltd, an Auckland youth research company, found that one in five young people had not seen the advertising for the Ministry of Health's
$2.2 million campaign launched last month.
Of those who had, only 16 per cent thought it was a "hit" and 54.3 per cent described it as "pretty shit".
Of the 337 people, aged 14 to 28, who responded to the survey, 6.5 per cent said they didn't care.
The "No Rubba, No Hubba Hubba" campaign aims to reduce the rise of sexually transmitted infections among teenagers. It is being promoted through television, cinema and magazine advertising, in brochures and the website www.hubba.co.nz until March.
When it was launched, the ministry's Acting Director of Public Health, Dr Doug Lush, said New Zealanders could pretend young people were not sexually active and watch disease rates soar or be active and realistic and give them the tools to protect themselves.
Spencer Willis, manager of 18Ltd, said half of those surveyed might not think much of the campaign but it was being talked about.
Whether it would change people's behaviour was a "whole different ballgame", but the first stepwas raising people's awareness.
Government campaigns tended to have a high percentage of people who said they didn't care, but this time that number was low.
"I think it will have legs and I hope they follow it up."
Ministry of Health sexual health campaign project manager Sally Hughes said the advertising had been developed in consultation with groups of teenagers. Six concepts were then researched with groups of sexually active young people.
"No Rubba, No Hubba Hubba" was the clear winner. Young people said it was upbeat, positive and non-judgmental. They all understood the "use a condom" message.
In the past five years the number of confirmed chlamydia and gonorrhoea cases diagnosed at sexual health clinics jumped 65 per cent and 57 per cent respectively. About 65 per cent of cases occur in people under 25.
