Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides accessible healthcare to every woman in America. Unfortunately, decisions about Planned Parenthood are made in male-dominated state legislatures where most laws are passed based on gender biases and social and economic ignorance. In the ultra-conservative, ultra-religious state of Utah, the existential threat to Planned Parenthood—and the access it provides to women of all ages and all backgrounds—is magnified.

In the face of this constant threat, Planned Parenthood continues to fight for women’s reproductive rights in Utah and around the country. The organization believes that women—not politicians—should have control over their own bodies and healthcare choices.

The goal is to change the conversation: to urge Utahns to think of Planned Parenthood as a vital member in their community; to see it as an advocate for women in need and not an adversary to conservative values; and, most importantly, to preserve the services it provides to over 46,000 women in Utah.

Healthcare is a basic human right. And Planned Parenthood is a healthcare provider for women.

Planned Parenthood provides vital reproductive health services (including legal abortions). It also provides valuable education around sex. But every year, access to its services is put at risk by conservative Utah and federal lawmakers. Various bills attempt to take back freedoms already given to women regarding their health. As Planned Parenthood says, “We won’t go back.”

Planned Parenthood believes that women, not politicians, know how to make the best health decisions for themselves and their families. And a result, Planned Parenthood needs to change the conversation between neighbors, before it can change legislation. It needs to show a polarized, conservative state the value it brings to the community.

When getting its message out about its reproductive health services in conservative Utah, Planned Parenthood is met with resistance. Cultural biases make it difficult for the organization to place its media. On many occasions, its advertising has been rejected for placement by media outlets or removed due to public request.

Introducing The Birds and The Beehive. It’s a platform to change the conversation around Planned Parenthood and reproductive health rights in Utah.

Utah is known as the Beehive State. Planned Parenthood needed to embrace the uniqueness of the state, and speak to the Utah experience and how Planned Parenthood fits with it, not against it.

To talk openly about sex in Utah, a cultural challenge, Planned Parenthood drew inspiration from the old “the birds and the bees” idiom in reference to “the sex talk.” Planned Parenthood connected the Beehive State to the birds and the bees, and created The Birds and The Beehive campaign.

The goal is to connect with all Utahns, to show that Planned Parenthood is a champion of Utah and to inform Utahns of the true service it provides to the women—and men—in the state. Because when understanding goes both ways, real positive change can happen.

Roughly half of Utahns have a somewhat or strongly favorable opinion of Planned Parenthood; the other half has a negative or no opinion.

In the past, Planned Parenthood targeted these audiences separately: targeting supporters with emotional rallying messages, and targeting opponents with educational messages about the essential healthcare services Planned Parenthood of Utah provides to people without health insurance.

The Birds and The Beehive was designed to bring these audiences together. Instead of talking to supporters and opponents differently, Planned Parenthood wanted to talk to all Utahns about what unites rather than divides them. Because Utahns of all political and cultural beliefs share experiences that only come from living in a place as unique as Utah.

The idea was to start a conversation rather than a shouting match. Planned Parenthood needed to cut through the misconceptions about the brand and engage with people by relying on wit in unexpected ways.

The Birds and The Beehive is an inclusive and disruptive platform designed to change the conversation in a conservative state.

At launch, Planned Parenthood headed to the Utah State Capitol on International Women’s Day with a Beehive Birdhouse. Using text-to-talk technology connected to Twitter, this 12-foot-tall birdhouse audibly broadcast peoples’ tweets using #birdsandthebeehive. These tweets let Utahns speak with one voice, standing for Planned Parenthood and calling out legislators for their lack of support on women’s issues.

Planned Parenthood kept the discussion going throughout the year by hosting house parties throughout the state to recruit ambassadors and creating collectable patches to incentivize action—from supporting Pride to getting people out to vote.

The Birds and The Beehive platform has been a formidable local force and a positive foundation for new conversations about sex and women’s health in Utah.

From out-of-home advertising to events, The Birds and The Beehive got the Beehive State buzzing.

After its launch, Planned Parenthood of Utah’s ambassador program grew by over 148%. As a result, The Birds and The Beehive is now a network of thousands who are all on call to stand up for women’s reproductive rights in Utah whenever there is a threat.

With this kind of support, Planned Parenthood of Utah was able to file an unprecedented federal lawsuit in April 2019 challenging Utah’s recently passed ban on abortions after the 18th week of pregnancy. The organization will never stop fighting for women’s healthcare in the state of Utah—and now there is large hive of support standing behind it every step of the way.