Starting this week, Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) is delivering an urgent message to young people: Turn down the volume on earbuds and headphones to prevent permanent hearing damage. HHF is launching powerful health ads that will greet transit commuters in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco with an accompanying video for social media.

The HHF “Keep Listening” campaign encourages people ages 16-35 to protect themselves from noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) by changing their listening habits with their personal audio devices and wearing earplugs when exposed to loud sound at places like music and sporting events, fitness classes, and even at the movies.

Not only can these simple behavioral changes protect hearing, they may reverse an alarming trend identified by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has labeled hearing loss a global emergency. The WHO says over one billion young people are at risk for noise-induced hearing loss. In the United States nearly one in five 12 to 19-year-olds already shows signs of NIHL. 

“The goal is to wake people up to the fact that hearing loss from noise is permanent—but entirely preventable—if  people take precautions,” says HHF president and CEO Timothy Higdon.

The danger of damaged hearing is especially pernicious among young people because many wrongly believe hearing loss is something that only affects older people.

This means many are tuned out to the damage loud sound can inflict.

Hearing loss has profound repercussions for health overall—it can affect the brain, heart, and mental health, leading to social isolation, depression, falls, and dementia. Even mild to moderate untreated hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline. It also impacts school and job performance and is linked to lower income potential and higher unemployment. 

But just as people changed their behavior as they became aware of the cancer risk from secondhand smoke and sun exposure, HHF wants to mobilize a culture shift on hearing loss.

In a series of “Keep Listening” campaign ads, headphones and earbuds are visually altered to depict grenades, drills, air horns, and megaphones to grab attention as people in New York Chicago, and San Francisco breeze into train stations, board buses, and hustle around their neighborhoods—likely with their headphones or earbuds blasting at dangerous levels.

HHF wants to sound the warning before it is too late.

HHF teamed up with the award-winning Chicago creative agency The Escape Pod to produce the ads and video “Grenades.” At first glance, the video looks like a new product launch but carries the message that listening to music on earbuds or headphones at high volumes can cause hearing damage in a matter of minutes. 

"When we learned about the extent of hearing loss impacting teenagers and young adults we were all shaken,” says Derek Sherman, the executive creative director at The Escape Pod. “As a father, I know firsthand that our children—and really all of us—are exposed to these high volumes constantly. We think the grenades and electric drills visually ‘explain’ the damage that earbuds and headphones can do at high volume.” 

The ads will run on digital displays in PATH train stations in New York and New Jersey, in train stations in Chicago, and on buses in San Francisco.

Information about hearing loss on the campaign website includes these simple precautions that everyone--young and older--should take:

Information about hearing loss on the campaign website includes these simple precautions that everyone can take to protect their hearing:

• Turn down the volume on headphones or earbuds. Experts recommend no more than 50 percent of available volume. Because many headphones max out at 100 decibels—or even more—you can permanently harm your hearing in just 15 minutes.

• Take a listening break and remove headphones or earbuds at least every hour.

• Use earplugs in loud places—stadium events, concerts, even noisy bars and subway platforms—and around leaf blowers, lawnmowers, and other loud machinery. Earplugs are effective, affordable, and won’t muffle sound.

Even a small reduction in volume levels has huge benefits, according to the WHO. HHF urges everyone to prevent hearing damage from dangerous noise levels so they can keep listening safely, for life.

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