SARS & SMS

There's an interesting story circulating about the Hong Kong government using SMS to warn to calm the public concerns about SARS. In response to a hoax that claimed Hong Kong was being declared an infected city, the government sent this message to 6 million cell phones: "Director of Health announced at 3pm today there is no plan to declare Hong Kong as an infected area."

I'd love to have more details on this, especially since it could be a very effective PR tactic when done in combination with other fast media (i.e. web and television). On its own I think it has the potential to create more confusion that it resolves. SMS gives you little room for scene setting, backstory, or other context. In this case I'd wonder whether the hoax was widely known, and how well people understood the message (the two people quoted in the above articles didn't know about the hoax and didn't grok the message). Were they really calmed by the message? Or just sort of stupefied?

Also, I bet this is the kind of thing that could only happen in Hong Kong--6.8 million people and 6 million cell phones. (via Hypergene)