Why would a politician use OnlyFans?
Brisbane-based Greens MP Stephen Bates posted his party’s health policy announcements on OnlyFans this week.
According to a Guardian report, he’s the first Australian politician with an OnlyFans account.
Obviously this is ‘newsworthy’. But why might it be a timely strategy for communicating policies specifically related to HIV pre and post exposure prophylaxis medications.
Bates is quoted as saying:
“Ending HIV is too important to fly under the radar,” he said. “I campaign on OnlyFans and Grindr because it gets attention. Sometimes you have to make a splash to make people pay attention to the things that matter.”
And yes, this is good PR. But it’s also part of a new digital health communication approach I’ve posted about in a previous newsletter.
I believe Bates’ campaign strategy is illustrative of the experimental approaches to sexual and reproductive health outreach we will see more and more in the aftermath of ‘anti-woke’ backlash against health content on X (formerly Twitter) and Meta platforms.
I’m still thinking about the best way to research and analyse these moves. I’m a media studies researcher, not a futurist or comms strategist.
But mainstream platforms become increasingly NSFSRH(not safe for sexual and reproductive health).
There is obviously a need to document and pushback against platform suppression of health content (particularly where content related to abortion rights, trans healthcare and LGBTQ+ health is disproportionately targeted).
But we also need workarounds. This might mean directing less energy into circular discussions with representatives of social platforms.
To me, this story is not just an example of cool election PR, it’s a brilliant illustration of emergent strategy for digital connection.
(Many thanks to Natalie Hendry, Sam Mannix, Anthony McCosker & Daniel Reeders for patiently listening to my ongoing rants on this topic!)