FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2008
Media Contact:
ASHA Media Relations
Attn: Fred Wyand
P.O. Box 13827
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
(919) 361 - 3124 (voice)
(919) 361 - 8425 (fax)
mediarelations@ashastd.org

The American Social Health Association Teams Up With Duval Guillaume
Online Facebook Application Designed to Highlight Dangers of Chlamydia
"Spread it Here to Beat it Here"

NEW YORK...In an unusual creative move, a team at Duval Guillaume (DG) has agreed to spread an infectious disease by working with the American Social Health Association (ASHA). The aim is to help the organization highlight the dangers of Chlamydia to young people during April, which is STD Awareness Month.

The Chlamydia bacteria that affects around 1 in 10 sexually active young people usually does not carry any symptoms, but it can cause serious medical problems such as infertility, according to ASHA spokesperson Fred Wyand, based at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

To show the dangers, the DG creative team, Joao Medeiros and Alex Goulart, working with a team of developers led by Razmig Hovaghimian and Larry Gadea, from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Carleton University's School of Engineering, have devised a Facebook application called MorphMonkey in which users are invited to "make a love child" by morphing pictures of their own faces with that of their friends.

The humor then takes a different turn. The infected user is notified that they have caught the infection from their friend and is prompted to discover more on the ASHA website: www.ashastd.org. The message is "Spread it here so we can beat it here", according to all involved with the program.

All Facebook users can take part in the campaign by simply downloading the MorphMonkey application and clicking the "Make a Love Child" tab. (Non- Facebook users must create an account first.) The application can be found at: http://apps.facebook.com/morphmonkey

Users are allowed to continue making love children whilst having the disease. However a twist comes at the end of 8 weeks, when they find that they are unable to make any more children for 2 days, as their untreated case of Chlamydia has of course made them infertile. The application does absolutely no harm to computers and is not a virus. Facebook has plenty of applications that can be downloaded every day but rarely are they used in a stunt like this.

"A non-profit organization like ASHA obviously does not have the funding to run a major campaign throughout STD month. Facebook is the perfect platform to spread this message. The demographics ASHA needs to target are all on the site, available and most importantly willing to engage," added Mr. Wyand.

Since 1914, the American Social Health Association (ASHA) has been dedicated to improving the health of individuals, families, and communities, with a focus on preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and their harmful consequences. At a time when the venereal diseases gonorrhea and syphilis were unmentionable, but nonetheless devastating, ASHA's founders broke the silence. Their efforts led to programs that helped to focus national attention on the need for public education, better clinical management, and effective treatments. Learn more at www.ASHAstd.org .

Duval Guillaume - Founded in 1996 and a member of the Publicis Groupe of Agencies, Paris, France, Duval Guillaume is a full-service, idea-centric advertising agency with offices in Belgium, France and the United States. Agency clients in the USA include The Topps Company, The Coca Cola Company, Le Pain Quotidien, Kagome of Japan, Newmark Knight Frank, Prestige Brands, US Navy and Alessi. European clients include Sara Lee, InBev (Stella Artois), Hyundai, Neuhaus, Dexia Financial Group and Nikon. Duval Guillaume was European Agency-of-the-Year in 2003 (EuroBest), is a frequent winner of Cannes Lions and consistently ranks as a Top 50 Gunn Report agency.For more information on Duval Guillaume, please visit www.duvalguillaume.com.

MorphMonkey programming: Razmig Hovaghimian (Stanford University) & Larry Gadea (Carleton University)