Psoriasis: The Naked Truth – The Search for Candidates

In late 2008, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals announced that they were launching an educational awareness campaign called Psoriasis: The Naked Truth. Through a photography exhibit of people living with the condition, The Naked Truth aims to raise awareness of the physical and emotional impact of psoriasis.

The first thing Wyeth needed was candidates to be photographed, so they came to Europso and other groups in Europe to help recruit men and women with psoriasis who would be willing to share their stories. It was not easy to recruit candidates in such a short time-frame, especially since many people with psoriasis are hesitant to talk about their disease and even more hesitate to appear in photos! Some people were scared away by the name of the programme – The Naked Truth.

As secretary of Europso, I was called upon to help find candidates so I began by approaching some people that I knew from the national Dutch psoriasis association and through Europso. I avoided people that I knew would be uncomfortable talking about their psoriasis in public. Some people came to me and said that since they were using the new biologic medicines, their psoriasis was not visual so why should they participate in the projects? In other parts of Europe, such as Germany, people claimed they were too conservative to take part. So, it was not an easy task to find participants…

About a week before the deadline, Annika from IFPA emailed me and informed me that she had emailed every member of the group in search of participants, so I decided to do the same and emailed a request out to all the members of Europso. After that all I could was wait and see who was selected.

After reviewing all the entries, Wyeth brought together19 people with psoriasis from 14 countries representing 3 continents for a photo shooting. Antoinette Romeo, Vice President of Europso, was selected to be photographed – she reports that it was a busy couple of days as the group had photos taken and practiced media interviews. Despite the hard work, the experience was overwhelmingly positive for Antoinette and all involved. The photo shoot participants enjoyed meeting people with whom they have a shared experience and everyone was proud to be part of an initiative which has the potential to make a big impact

The Naked Truth photo exhibit and a behind-the-scenes documentary were unveiled for the first-time ever to members of the media from across Europe on the evening of 26 March, 2009 in Amsterdam. Since then it has travelled the region and has been to Spain, France, the UK. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Lebanon. The photographs will continue to travel with expected stops at medical meetings and media events in Germany, Ireland, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

To see the photographs, including Antoinette, visit www.psoriasisthenakedtruth.com.

Antoinette Romeo, Psoriasis: The Naked Truth photograph

Submitted by: André Cats, Europso, Secretary