Minister Varadkar promotes safer sex message to festival goers at Electric Picnic 2015
5th September 2015
The HSE’s sexual health campaign ‘Johnny’s got you covered’ is reminding sexually active adults to use condoms when they have sex.
The THINK team and Johnny are distributing 2,000 Protection Packs (including a condom and sexual health information) to festival goers on their way to Electric Picnic. The campaign character ‘Johnny’ who represents the safety and reassurance of using a condom is at the festival promoting his safer sex message. If you find him, take a photo with him and tweet it with #IfoundJohnny to be in with the chance of winning a prize. This video explains all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRcV9Gp0oBw .
80% of young people use contraception every single time they have sex. That means 20% – or one in five – take risks from time to time and can end up contracting an STI or having an unwanted pregnancy. The main reasons for not always using contraception among 18-25 year olds were not being prepared, sex was not planned, no contraception or just took a chance.
Minister Varadkar is encouraging all those at Electric Picnic to “Have fun but be safe. Sexually transmitted infections including HIV are on the increase, which is something we should all be worried about. Take precautions, always have protection and remember to get an STI screen.”
The THINK contraception campaign has been running since 2004 with over 155,000 people visiting the www.thinkcontraception.ie website to get information on contraception, STIs and screening in 2014. Johnny’s facebook page has over 50,000 people followers currently and is growing. Independent evaluation of the campaign shows that 78% of people were aware of the “Johnny’s got you covered” advertising in 2014 with almost 9 in 10 people agreed that it is effective in increasing their awareness of STIs and crisis pregnancy as risks associated with unprotected sex.
For more information:
- Watch Johnny’s journey to Electric Picnic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRcV9Gp0oBw
- Connect with Johnny on Twitter @thinkjohnny
- Connect with Johnny on Facebook.com/thinkjohnny
- Visit thinkcontraception.ie for information about contraception, STIs and where you can go to get an STI test.
