On April 21, a black banner with white writing appeared over 13th Avenue on the University of Oregon campus.
It read: “I’m taking over.” And it was signed with the initial “M.”
That was accompanied by tweets from the account @M_Oregon, like this one:
Not to be overlooked #UNCOVERM pic.twitter.com/aMF1Lt5CC1
— M (@M_Oregon) April 24, 2015
This presence that haunted campus for a week finally revealed itself. At around 11 a.m on April 28, the website for the #UncoverM campaign was unlocked to students with the password “meningitis” hidden in its tweets. This was followed by a campus-wide email from the University Health Center revealing that it, along with a group of advertising students, was behind #UncoverM.
The campaign was an effort to spread awareness about meningitis prevention among students, as well as to usher in the university’s second round of vaccinations in May. Two and a half weeks ago, the health center approached Allen Hall Advertising for help in publicizing the next round of vaccinations, as well as prevention techniques and information about the most at-risk groups.
AHA assembled a team of eight members to create a campaign that would attract students’ attention in a way that university voices couldn’t.
“We wanted to present the information in a way that could actually be communicated to students because students aren’t actually going to read a poster or they’re not gonna go to a website and read about meningitis in their spare time, so we needed a way to integrate this information in a way that can spark their curiosity,” said Spice Walker, a member of the AHA #UncoverM team.
The team chose Twitter as its chief platform to reach students. The two members of the team running the account tweeted out an obscure clue every day. The first letter of these clues spelled out “meningitis.”
“We kind of thought, okay, let’s make meningitis a villain, something people can identify and something people can actually fight against, but also leverage their curiosity in order to drive their curiosity,” said Chris Drachkovitch, another member of the campaign team.
Students’ reactions were mixed, ranging from fear to frustration
@M_Oregon I feel like I’m a part of The Imitation Game, where the password changes everyday. #racingagainsttheclock #uncoverm — Juliann Larese (@DancieJuliannie) April 23, 2015
@M_Oregon great, now I can finally be Nancy Drew
— Carolyn Cruze (@Cruze_Carolyn) April 24, 2015
The Twitter feed even caught the attention of alumni and staff. Brandt Hamilton, a 2014 graduate, said that he first heard about the campaign after ending a Skype session with advertising professor, Deb Morrison’s advertising class.
“At first it was my mom trying to get me to call more,” Hamilton said. “It’s good community management.”
In coordination with the university, the team also dispersed flyers and wrote approved messages on bathroom mirrors in lipstick. They even got to hang another banner on the crane at the EMU construction site.
However, they ran into some trouble when a message that was not approved was written on a bathroom mirror and concerned students alerted UOPD
“The intention wasn’t to scare the crap out of people, that’s for sure,” campaign team member Zachary McKinney said.
Some students did start to catch onto the secrets, like the fact that the first letters of #UncoverM’s tweets spelled out “meningitis,” which was exactly what the team wanted, said McKinney.
The team pulled the campaign together in a matter of two weeks, simply because they thought the issue was important.
“We’re doing this because we want to do it and when the health center contacted us, we were 100 percent on board…” Drachkovitch said. “We think it’s a really important issue that students need to be aware of.”
The #UncoverM website lays out the information and is now live. The health center’s second vaccination effort will be held May 12-14 in Matthew Knight Arena.
Follow Kaylee Tornay on Twitter @ka_tornay
Kira Hoffelmeyer contributed reporting to this article.
