BACKGROUND
The "Don't Kid Yourself" campaign was funded by the U.S. Public Health Service's Title X family planning grant program in a six-state region: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. As one element of their initiative to reduce unintended pregnancies in the region, the grant administrators from each state decided in 1995 to pool their resources to develop a social marketing program.
Organizers of the project formed a steering committee composed of representatives from each state and the Public Health Service regional office. Although most of the grantees were state health departments, the project was headed up administratively by the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. The steering committee members first educated themselves by attending a major social marketing conference. Once they determined that they wanted to employ a social marketing campaign, they put together a Request for Proposal (RFP) and sent it to social marketing firms and consultants to solicit bids for the project. After a long proposal review and interview process, they ultimately selected Weinreich Communications to lead the campaign.