The Utah Department of Health has replaced its top spokesman, but it won’t say whether the change is related to a controversial HIV awareness campaign this month featuring Utah-themed condoms.
Charla Haley has been named director of communications for the department; Tom Hudachko, the former director, is now listed under “Communications for Medicaid,” according to a news release issued Wednesday.
"Due to some staffing changes and reassignments, the Office of Public Information and Marketing (OPIM) has been reorganized," the statement reads. "No further comments will be made regarding these changes."
The reorganization comes about two weeks after the department suspended an HIV awareness campaign amid criticism of its risqué Utah-themed condom packaging. The cardboard envelopes riffed on various Utah memes, with labels such as “Greatest Sex on Earth,” “SL,UT,” an image of a highway sign that displays the number of miles to towns “Fillmore” and “Beaver,” and “This is the Place” over a drawing of a bed.
The department had ordered 130,000 condoms in the wrappers as part of the campaign launched this month with a coalition of patient advocates.
[Read more: Recalled Utah condoms appear on eBay]
The health department already had sent more than 40,000 of the condoms to community groups and health providers statewide when Gov. Gary Herbert last week ordered a halt to distribution, criticizing the use of “sexual innuendo as part of a taxpayer-funded campaign.” The department issued an apology calling the condoms “offensive.”
As department staff worked to track down the condoms, they temporarily halted other marketing tied to the federally funded campaign, and took its informational “HIV and Me” website offline.
Although Herbert said no one at the department was fired over the campaign, the outgoing message on Hudachko’s voice mail was changed that day to alert callers that he was no longer available at that number, redirecting them to a personal phone, or to the general department media hotline.
Hudachko now shares his responsibilities for Medicaid communications with another staffer, Kolbi Young, according to the department’s news release.
