'Teach Me How to Brushy' goes viral

(By Karen Fox, ADA News staff)

Wilsonville, Ore.—The Oregon Dental Association has created a sensation with its new public service announcement, "Teach Me How to Brushy."

It's a one-minute, 17-second hip hop video set to the tune of "Teach Me How to Dougie" by Cali Swag District and featuring an array of well-known Oregonians such as former Portland Trail Blazer Jerome Kersey. About a week after its July 16 release, Teach Me How to Brushy has garnered more than 412,000 hits on YouTube.

The video's success has even surprised the people behind it. The video—which the ADA State Public Affairs Program assisted in partially funding—was produced on a modest budget, said Dr. Greg Jones, ODA president. The association originally set out to fill a void in fun educational videos aimed at children that taught the importance of brushing and flossing. By using social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the video exploded online.

"We had no thought that this would go out of Oregon that far," Dr. Jones told KOBI-TV, the NBC affiliate in Medford, Ore. The video has been featured on the home page of MouthHealthy.org, and on "Good Morning America," the "Today Show," Huffington Post and other national and online publications.

"We wanted to create a fun, interactive tool parents can use to get their kids excited about good dental habits," said Dr. Jill Price, ODA president-elect. "The mouth is a major health center in the body; unhealthy mouths can lead to diabetes, heart issues and worse. But rather than lecture parents and expect that lecture to reach their kids, we wanted to create a hub for good facts that families will actually want to check out."

ODA is keeping the momentum going by encouraging people to post photos of their children "doing the brushy" on ODA's Facebook wall.

View the video on ODA's Facebook page at teachmehowtobrushy.com.

Source: http://www.ada.org/news/7385.aspx