Healthy Penis
Also: Healthy Penis 2002
San Francisco Department of Public Health syphilis campaign for gay and bisexual men, launched in 2002 during a sharp rise in early syphilis. It used cartoon characters on posters and in bars and the gay press to push regular syphilis testing.
- Years
- 2002–now
- Country
- United States
- Topic
- HIV/STI
- Asks people to
- Start
- Strategy
- HumorSimple instruction
- Channel
- OutdoorPrint
- Audience
- AdultsMenGay and bisexual men in San Francisco.
Evidence
ObservationalPositive
Cross-sectional survey of 244 gay and bisexual men (Montoya 2005): men with unaided awareness of the campaign were about 3 times as likely to have had a syphilis test in the past 6 months (OR 3.21), after adjustment. They also knew more about syphilis.
Sponsor (who paid)
- San Francisco Department of Public Health State local government, funder and creator
Credits (who made it)
Not recorded yet.
Related campaigns
- Stop the Sores 2002–now
Sources
- Montoya JA et al. Social marketing campaign significantly associated with increases in syphilis testing among gay and bisexual men in San Francisco. Sex Transm Dis 2005;32(7):395-9 evaluation · 2005 · DOI 10.1097/01.olq.0000154507.58437.40 · PMID 15976595
- Ahrens K et al. Healthy Penis: San Francisco's social marketing campaign to increase syphilis testing among gay and bisexual men. PLoS Med 2006 evaluation · 2006 · DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030474 · PMID 17194182
Research notes
Created 2026-10-22 by literature mining (PubMed/OpenAlex); evidence level, outcome and findings are paraphrased from the evaluation abstracts, full texts not read. No credits: no page naming an agency was checked. Convenience sample, cross-sectional. US-CA (San Francisco). endYear unknown. Evaluation sources added 2026-10-22 (citation snowballing / helpline pass): Ahrens 2006; evidence level and outcome unchanged.
Record cases/sf-healthy-penis.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign