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Public health warning

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The pattern

This still is filed under Public health warning.

Define

A warning designed to change a health behavior (stop, screen, stay home), not to sell a brand.

Mechanism

Fear with a next step. The threat is specific. The action is doable today. Fear without an action is cruelty.

Verdict

The risk is real and the action is clear. Official or civic voices help.

Read the pattern

Why it works

Two lines of type do two different jobs and are separated to the far edges of the sheet so neither dilutes the other: the top line states the problem in a verb-first command, the bottom line names the single action that solves it. The illustration is not decoration, it is the instruction, showing arm, needle and white coat so there is no ambiguity about what is being asked. Naming the disease in the largest type broke a taboo deliberately, and that shock is what buys the second read. The factory chimneys locate the whole thing at the workplace, which tells the employer it is his problem and not the health department's.

Steal this when

Use this when the person who must act is not the person with the problem. Put the problem in the top line, the third party's specific action in the bottom line, and let a picture of the action itself fill everything between them.

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