Seizing the fast-changing world of PR: a children's flu health education campaign

Many brands and products harness the power of public relations to advance their offerings or expand their markets—translating complex, hard-to-grasp ideas and making products more vivid and influential. In healthcare, professional medical PR has likewise helped new products and concepts become part of everyday life.

PR is influence: social media and KOLs become the mainstays of health education

Taiwan's medical advertising regulations, however, are stricter than those of many other countries. Overtly promotional ads or posters cannot explicitly state therapeutic effects or product names; exposure can only be built more subtly, through partnerships with medical societies or third-party organizations. In recent years, that landscape has shifted with the rise of digital platforms and social media KOLs. Many pharmaceutical companies have tapped the massive traffic and viral reach of these new channels to capture public attention—and even change behavior. The oral flu antiviral launched by Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi is one example riding this wave.

Influenza is an acute respiratory illness caused by the influenza virus, prevalent every autumn and winter; severe cases can lead to pneumonia, myocarditis, and even death. Every flu season, information about prevention and early treatment floods every major platform. Media-WIND's PR team has spent years tracking shifting digital trends and evolving insights among younger audiences. With the support of Shionogi and the medical society, it broke free of conventional thinking and began telling the story in a fresh new way.

"Drink more hot water" LINE stickers become flu season's newest greeting

Flu campaigns inevitably cover common secondary illnesses, vaccination, and antiviral comparisons, and to make the message more engaging, many pharmaceutical companies and PR agencies enlist celebrity spokespeople for health education. But after relentless campaigns from every brand, the public has grown weary of flu messaging. This year, at Media-WIND PR's recommendation, Shionogi made a bold breakthrough: it invited the popular illustrated IP "Ugly White Rabbit" as its new ambassador—making "Ugly White Rabbit" the medical field's first non-human spokescharacter.

Through the eyes of "Ugly White Rabbit," creator Paul illustrated the miseries of catching the flu, from non-stop coughing to an HP bar drained to zero. The complete set of 40 stickers, titled "Flu Guardians ft. Ugly White Rabbit," was released on the LINE platform under the name of the Taiwan Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, tying flu health education tightly to everyday life. A series of campaigns built around the "Ugly White Rabbit" universe will also roll out soon, including clinic leaflets, posters, and health education animations. What Media-WIND saw in this campaign was the deep integration of social apps into daily life and the surging popularity of illustrated content—careful observation that gave rigid, serious-minded public health education a fresh breakthrough.

Search for "Flu Guardians ft. Ugly White Rabbit" in LINE stickers
or click the link to buy the stickers and become a flu guardian too!https://line.me/S/sticker/28472154

PR moves fast: Media-WIND PR rides the trends with multiple digital health education campaigns

A fast-moving, unpredictable environment and technology landscape poses enormous challenges for brands and PR agencies, but it also heralds a future of richer, more diverse, and more influential PR. Media-WIND PR has long been recruiting talent from across disciplines and partnering with many pharmaceutical companies to co-create work that makes health education neither stiff nor convoluted—securing its place in an era where information vanishes in an instant.