Burnet Institute + Hepatitis B Voices Australia bust Hepatitis B myths with ‘You can’t get hep B here’ campaign via indie agency Enigma

Burnet Institute – one of Australia’s leading independent medical research and public health institutes – and Hepatitis B Voices Australia (a community-first-led organisation governed by people living with and affected by the virus) have partnered with indie Creative & Media agency Enigma to launch a national campaign with a singular powerful message: “You Can’t Get Hep B Here”.

For Australia’s Chinese and Vietnamese communities, misinformation about hepatitis B can cause stigma and shame for people living with the virus. Though the virus is transmitted only through contact with infected blood and sexual fluids, for generations there have been misconceptions that it can be spread through casual contact – simple everyday things like holding hands, hugging or sharing food and utensils.

Consequently, people living with hepatitis B have experienced unwarranted social prejudice as friends and even family avoid physical contact and exclude them from social gatherings and the simple everyday pleasure of sharing a meal together. As a result, although hepatitis B treatment is readily available, safe and highly effective, many people avoid diagnosis and care, and, in Australia, three people die from hepatitis B every day.

To dispel the damaging myths at the heart of this problem, the campaign was co-designed with community members to ensure the messaging is culturally relevant and grounded in the lived experience of people with hepatitis B.

The cornerstone of the creative is an adhesive red tape, designed and created by the agency, bearing the campaign’s message in simplified Chinese, Vietnamese and English. The tape, purposely made to make people stop, pause and reassess, was community tested for cultural impact and relevance, with the colour red holding different meanings for different audiences – from warning to hope or celebration.

Says Aldo Ferretto, Enigma Head of Art & Creative Director: “Our design borrows from the conventional visual language of hazard warning, then deliberately turns it on its head, effectively ‘warning’ our audience that there’s nothing to worry about. The message is beautifully simply clear: the myths aren’t true; you can’t get Hep B here.”

The Enigma team meticulously hand-wrapped a suite of familiar everyday objects with the tape. Photographer Andy Lewis photographed the wrapped objects in studio – providing the visual assets that roll out across the campaign’s website and OOH and digital media executions.

An installation at Chatswood Mall featured a fully tape-wrapped dining table and chairs set up ready for a meal, inviting the public to sit down and engage with its message. Says Ferretto: “This idea is all the more powerful when it enters the physical world. Making things with our hands is part of our creative culture at Enigma, and the public’s response to this work is testament to the value of crafting bespoke tangible experiences of this kind.”

Associate Professor Jessica Howell, Senior Research Fellow and Head, Hepatitis B and Liver Cancer at the Burnet Institute, said the campaign responds to a critical gap in community knowledge. Says Howell: “For more than 50 years, the Burnet Institute has been working to understand, prevent and ultimately eliminate hepatitis B. We know that fear is one of the biggest obstacles, and when hepatitis B feels threatening or embarrassing, people avoid information altogether.”

Hepatitis B Voices Australia, the only community-first-led organisation in Australia completely governed by people living with and affected by hepatitis B, ensures that the people most affected by the condition are central to the national response. Lien Tran, a spokesperson for HBVA, said the community’s involvement in shaping this campaign made a real difference.

Says Tran: “For a long time, misinformation has caused so much unnecessary shame and isolation for people living with hepatitis B. This campaign speaks the truth in our languages, in our voices, and it reflects what our communities need to hear.”

Project Partner: Burnet Institute
Emily, Adamson, Health Promotion Lead
Dr Jack Wallace, Senior Researcher
Dr Jacqui Richmond, Program Manager, Workforce & Development
Filip Djordjevic, Evaluation Officer
Project Partner : Hepatitis B Voices Australia
Lien Tran, Project Co-ordinator & Director
Dr Thomas Tu, Director
Zhenni Jiang, Chinese Peer Navigator
Ha Nguyen, Vietnamese Peer Navigator

Australian Centre for Disease Control supported the campaign.

Creative, Media & Production: Enigma
Chief Creative Officer: Simon Lee
Creative Director & Head of Art: Aldo Ferretto
Creative Director: Matt Dawe
Chief Strategy Officer: Dom Hickey
Managing Director: Jack Mason
Executive Strategy Director: Jenna Russell
Head of Creative Services: Clare Yardley
Executive Director, Media: Sally Lawrence
Senior Media Executive: Tracy Meyer
Executive Producer: Katie Hope
Senior Designer: Jonathan Morell
Senior Studio Designers: Chad Lippert & Brenden Stothart
Senior Editor: Karl Warwick Pearson
Production: Lachlan Kramer
Hero Photography: Andy Lewis
Retoucher: Ken Liu

PR: Smoke Communications, Tabitha Fairbairn, Managing Director

The Wrapping Crew: Jonathan Morell, Chad Lippert, Cam Brown, Bettina Wrinkler,
Louise Arnold, Simon Lee, Dom Hickey, Jack Mason, Aldo Ferretto.

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