An Australian health department has been praised for breaking a taboo with a novel health campaign telling people: “It’s okay to poo at work.”
Health and marketing experts are hailing as “world-leading” the social media campaign released this month by the Queensland health department for normalising a healthy human behaviour.
The Instagram video borrows from the TikTok meme format of a psychedelic montage of dolphins, unicorns and rainbows set against Neick Sanders’ song Symphony and the words: “It’s okay to poo at work.”
The health department’s Facebook post is simpler – “Pooing at work. Discuss.”
Both social media posts carry public health messaging in their captions, warning: “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,” the caption goes on.
“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,” the post says.
It also provides practical “tips for a stress-free public-toilet poo”.
“Remember that everyone poops. Visualise someone famous on the toilet (like Taylor Swift),” is the first recommendation.
Dee Madigan, the founder and creative director of advertising agency Campaign Edge, said Queensland Health’s social media account was “world-leading” – “I think it is genuinely one of the best government department social media teams.”
Madigan highlighted that the engagement rate of the non-sponsored posts about defecating at work were “extraordinary”, with more than 3,500 comments on Facebook and more than 22,000 likes on Instagram within a week.
Those comments were overwhelmingly lauding Queensland Health for bringing the topic out of the shadows, though others did express their surprise: “Did the government just put an image of Taylor Swift pooping in my brain?” and “Dear QLD Health. R u ok?”
“Just starting to talk about it [openly], everyone has those secret conversations with people,” Madigan said. “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 said.
“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.”
Simon Robert Knowles, an associate professor at Swinburne University of Technology and a clinical psychologist, specialises in how the brain influences the gut, and the gut influences the brain, including social anxiety disorders like parcopresis.
It’s common for Knowles’ clients to have anxiety about using public restrooms, especially those at work “because there might be a fellow colleague who is nearby, and the worries about the sounds and the smells that might come about”.
Two in five people live with a disorder of gut-brain interruption, including conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and functional constipation, a study of more than 54,000 people from 26 countries found.
“Some people will go to quite extreme lengths, so they won’t go into the toilet at all in work settings, or what they’ll do is they’ll leave work and go somewhere else – for example, it might be their shopping centre or another location where they can get access to the toilet,” Knowles said.
“In some cases, it might be more extreme where they’re taking medications in order to reduce the probability of having to have a bowel motion in a public setting.”
Continuing to avoid using public restrooms ultimately increases the level of distress, making it harder to use public restrooms because of that anxiety, Knowles said.
He also commended Queensland Health’s message, saying there needed to be more normalisation of the anxiety which can arise using public restrooms. “It is an issue that is under-recognised, and so I think it’s important that Queensland Health has shown initiative to raise this.”
A Queensland Health spokesperson said the posts “addressed a common but often unspoken health concern, aiming to normalise discussions around bodily functions”.
“Tackling what can often be considered as taboo health topics reduces shame, embarrassment and fear, while also helping to entertain, educate and promote healthier behaviours,” the spokesperson said.
