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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
The Queensland health department is getting praise online for its latest campaign to tackle a potentially embarrassing problem – what to do when you need to poop at work.
The campaign was launched on various social media platforms and received enthusiastic response everywhere. A video on Instagram, featuring the statement “It’s okay to poo at work” overlaid on a montage of Lisa Frank images of dolphins, rainbows and unicorns and set to Neick Sanders’s song “Symphony”, received over 25,000 likes and thousands of comments.
The campaign on Facebook took a simpler approach. A post simply said: “Pooing at work. Discuss.”
And discuss people did, as the post got over 5,000 likes and 3,600 comments.
Despite the novel approach, the health department’s messaging is fairly direct. The posts carry important public health messages in their captions, cautioning that “ignoring your need to poop” can lead to “serious issues”.
“Lots of people find it difficult to poo in public toilets. But we’re here to tell you it’s definitely okay to go number 2 at work!” reads the caption.
“Consistently ignoring your need to poo can lead to stool getting stuck in your colon, haemorrhoids and other serious issues. So, it’s better to let it out than hold it in.
“If you find it extremely difficult to poo around other people, you might have parcopresis. Sometimes called ‘poo paranoia’, people with this condition have an overwhelming fear of being judged by others because of the sounds or smells associated with pooing. As a result, they may experience symptoms like increased heart rate, sweating or nausea.”
Along with the safety messaging, the health department gave tips so readers can have a “stress-free public toilet poo”.
They include remembering that everyone poops and trying to “visualise someone famous on the toilet (like Taylor Swift)”.
Other suggestions include bringing a small fragrance spray into the toilet, avoiding eating foods that “might trigger your bowels”, and breathing deeply or doing a short meditation exercise to rid oneself of the anxiety.
The health department’s quirky messaging seemed to have landed well with its audience, with a Facebook user even suggesting, “All workplaces should have a radio at a good volume in bathrooms”.
“Do it on company time and get paid to poop,” commented one Instagram user.
“In the words of the great Whitney Houston, it’s not right but it’s okay,” said another.
Several commenters recommended that the health department’s social media manager be given a raise.
Some users, though, were left unsure about what to do with the knowledge that Swift, like everyone else, poops.
“I don’t know who the dedicated Instagram person is for QLD health but, my god, you are doing a great job and you need a pay rise,” said one Instagram user.
Another said: “Did the government just put an image of Taylor Swift pooping in my brain?”
Dee Madigan, the founder and creative director of advertising agency Campaign Edge, described the health department’s social media account as “world-leading”.
“Just starting to talk about it, everyone has those secret conversations with people. I think what it shows is a department where the staff feel not scared to do stuff like this because often government departments’ social media is so safe, it’s actually just bland and boring,” she told The Guardian.
“It is actually a serious message, they’re just using social media in the correct way to deliver it … Just because something’s a serious topic doesn’t mean you can’t use humour to get into it.”
