CHAINSAW? Check. Tape? Check. Brains? Now the United States knows we're ready to deal with the zombie apocalypse!
No, a zombie has not already got into the brains of the United State's Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the exploding popularity of reanimated corpses destroying civilisation in recent decades has been recognised as an ideal opportunity to promote disaster preparedness.
In a free "webinar" run over the weekend, titled Zombie Awareness: Effective Practices in Promoting Disaster Preparedness, the US agencies tapped into the sub-culture to hammer home their messages about what to do before, during and after a disaster.
The reeking, contagious and violent zombies were just there to add a bit of levity to the subject.
"Zombie Preparedness messages and activities have proven to be an effective way to engage new audiences, particularly young people who may not be familiar with what to do before, during or after a disaster, said FEMA's Danta Randazzo. "(It's) also a great way grab attention and increase awareness about emergency preparedness."
And that's what the webinar was all about: How to exploit the zombie pop-culture pandemic to promote emergency readiness campaigns among younger audiences.
Source: Supplied
FEMA was inspired by the success earlier this year of the Centre for Disease Control's Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse graphic novel and blog campaign.
The campaign was widely lauded for generating an enormous amount of publicity for minimal cost.
The United States FEMA and CDC agencies are tapping into the prevalence of Zombies in pop-culture to push an emergency preparedness message.
The concept emerged after a CDC twitter post asked people what kind of disaster people were prepared for. The prevalence of tongue-in-cheek answers stating "zombie apocalypse" got the agency thinking.
So the CDC gave people what they wanted - an online "kit" of tips, tricks and facts on how to survive in a world dominated by the walking dead.
"If you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack," CDC director Dr Ali Khan said.
The Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse website crashed within 10 minutes of its release earlier this year - due to the onrushing hordes desperate to pick the site's brains for ideas, the CDC said.
With Halloween just around the corner and the Mayan calendar expiring in a few months time, US citizens may soon have an opportunity to put their ideas to the test.
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