Public health speaker to discuss STD campaigns

Gary Mueller and some of his ads.

You may have seen Gary Mueller’s provocative ads targeting sexually transmitted diseases on billboards around Omaha. Now you can come listen to him talk about the ads and much more as he speaks at Grand Rounds for the Center for Reducing Health Disparities from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday. The presentation is in conjunction with April being National Minority Health Month.

The presentation will be held in the College of Public Health Auditorium, Room 3013. Lunch will be provided for the first 50 attendees.

Mueller is arguably one of public health’s most provocative and creative pitchmen. As executive creative director at the Milwaukee ad agency, BVK, and the founder of Serve, the country’s only all-volunteer, non-profit ad agency, Mueller has built his career on breaking the rules and pushing the boundaries of creativity.

He has spent his career helping conservative organizations see the value of doing bold and attention-getting marketing campaigns. Whether that is plastering pregnant teen boys on the side of buses, putting scratch-and-sniff dirty diapers on bus shelters, or launching fake STD stores, Mueller’s PSA efforts have been debated everywhere – from the Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN and Time Magazine, to the New York Times, Newsweek and the Huffington Post.

A sampling of Mueller’s work can be found on vimeo here
and here.