How Fundraising Sometimes Fails to Connect by Ignoring Its Audience

I saw this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention display in an airport the other day. It's not a fundraising message, but it makes a communication error that's often made in fundraising.

Here's the error: The CDC is talking about the issue from its own point of view, not that of its audience.

If you work at the CDC, your picture of Hepatitis C is that it's a big and widespread problem. So a lot of faces superimposed on a map captures that sense. For you. And the final line, "early detection can save lives," is a crystallizing and motivating statement of the problem and its solution.

But that's not at all what this issue looks like to the intended audience—the people who might be at risk for Hepatitis C and ought to get tested.