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Understanding AIDS (Surgeon General's 1988 household mailing)

Also: Understanding AIDS: A Message from the Surgeon General

Brochure from Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, mandated by Congress and mailed to about 107 million US households in 1988, the largest US public health mailing at the time. It explained plainly how HIV spreads and how to prevent it.

Years
1988
Country
United States
Topic
HIV/STI
Asks people to
StartTalk to someone
Strategy
Trusted messenger
Channel
Direct mail
Audience
General public

Evidence

ObservationalNo effect

The Pink Book (p. 108) reports a Connecticut evaluation that found no difference in attitudes between residents who read the pamphlet and those who did not. The book gives no citation.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • US Surgeon General / Centers for Disease Control Federal government

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. National Cancer Institute. Making Health Communication Programs Work ("Pink Book"), revised edition, 2002, p. 108 reference · 2002
  2. CDC. Understanding AIDS: an information brochure being mailed to all U.S. households. MMWR 1988 history · 1988

Research notes

Created 2026-10-23 from a full reading of the Pink Book (docs/pink-book.md, issue #43). Page numbers are the book's printed pages. Also on the HCF editorial What Works timeline (docs/hcf-editorial-campaigns.md, Table A #8), which cites the MMWR item for the reach figure; the MMWR page was not opened here. Often described as pretested; not documented in sources read here, so no testing field. The Connecticut evaluation should be found and cited.

Record cases/surgeon-general-understanding-aids-1988.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign