#PinkOut Day is a National Day of Action on September 29th, when people across the country will join together to stand with Planned Parenthood, an essential health care provider that millions of women, men, and young people rely on for reproductive health care, education, and advocacy. By using the step-by-step guide below, you’ll be able to develop your own successful #PinkOut event. 

Listen to a recording of the host prep call.

Before your event

When people sign up for your event, encourage them to promote it on their social media platforms. You can do this by sending them suggested language for a tweet, which they can augment for Facebook and tweak to their liking.

During your event

1. If you are handing out hard copy materials, include our main hashtags: #PinkOut to #StandwithPP and encourage supporters to post with these hashtags.
2. If you have a social media handle for yourself, your school, or your organization:
   • Ask a partner to post from that handle during the event.
   • Share that handle verbally and/or in your hard copy materials, and ask attendees to follow/retweet from it.
3. Take photos! Best practices for taking photos include:
   • Taking photos with context (such as a sign or landmark that conveys the location to the viewer),
   • Branding (such as a PP sign or someone in a PP shirt),
   • Action shots (such as people laughing, gesturing with their hands, or shaking hands), and
   • Capturing the full crowd and filling the frame with as much as possible. Avoid photos of small groups of people standing around.

After your event

• Immediately after the event is a great time for a group photo.
  • Get as many people together who are wearing pink as you can, and take a picture.
  • Extra points for a unique backdrop — something that shows you are in a specific place (instead of a background that looks like a nondescript meeting room).
  • Post this on social media with #PinkOut and #StandWithPP. If you have room, add WHY these people are standing with Planned Parenthood.
  • Ask attendees to let you know if they have posted. Find their posts and like/favorite and retweet/share them.
  • Post a “thank you” to all attendees through your social media platforms. Feel free to include the group photo you took!

As a central part of #StandWithPP on #PinkOut Day, MoveOn members are hosting visibility events in our communities. There have been a lot of hearings lately surrounding Planned Parenthood and the services Planned Parenthood health centers provide. However, these hearings have been held by members of Congress and other elected officials with regressive views that do not reflect the progressive values of MoveOn members or those of Planned Parenthood patient advocates across the country. Therefore, we intend to host speak-outs—also known as“people’s hearings”—and other visibility events across the country to hear from patient advocates, activists, and members of Planned Parenthood who are deeply impacted by the issues that Planned Parenthood addresses and the services they provide.  

Before the event, consider the following:

1: Location

When selecting a location for your #PinkOut event, you should consider (1) whether the space can accommodate the anticipated number of attendees, (2) how accessible the location of the event is for both the participants and the media (including public transportation and parking), (3) whether the location is easy to find, (4) whether it has stairs, and (5) any other factors specific to your community. Ideal locations for #PinkOut events are parks that are centrally located, public squares, and in front of the office of a member of Congress.

2: Be Visible

Two keys to making your #PinkOut event highly visible to passersby and media are to make sure everyone wears pink and to have a lot of big signs. A good rule of thumb is to have a sign for everyone who attends. You can print out signs from the link below under “Must-have Materials,” and you can make your own with messages like: “MoveOn members stand with Planned Parenthood.” “Another_____ standing with Planned Parenthood. Consider getting together with other people who are coming to the event sometime on Monday to make signs together. And remember: ASK PEOPLE TO WEAR PINK!

Must-have material:

• Signs
  • “Stand with Planned Parenthood” poster 11 x 17
  • “Stand with Planned Parenthood” poster 8 x 11
  • “Don’t Take Away Our Care” placards
  • “Stand with Planned Parenthood” placards
  • You can also make you own homemade sign with the message like: “MoveOn stand with Planned Parenthood.” “Another_______ standing with Planned Parenthood.”
• Welcome signs
• Remember: ASK PEOPLE TO WEAR PINK!
• Agenda and talking points—print this page to have them handy

Also consider:

• Name tags for speakers
• T-shirts for event staff and volunteers

3: Audience and Participants

A major goal for #PinkOut Day events is to turn out other members of the community—at least 20 people, and some events will have 200 people. Here are the steps to take before your event to build your crowd:

• To tackle event logistics…
  • Ask for help. Ask a friend, and also ask the MoveOn members who sign up to attend the #PinkOut to help. Log in to your host tools page to communicate with your attendees!
• To increase partner involvement and turnout…
  • Reach out to your local Planned Parenthood health center to get connected with patient advocates the folks most impacted by restrictions on the Planned Parenthood services.
  • Contact likeminded organizations and ask them to participate and help get the word out. We know we can’t do this alone, and we wouldn’t want to.
  • Invite local and state elected officials who champion the work of Planned Parenthood at the state house.
  • Ask people who RSVP to attend your #PinkOut event to invite people in the networks.
  • Be sure to make two rounds of confirmation calls or text messages to increase the likelihood that folks who RSVP will show up.
  • After the event send out thank you notes to the participants and share photographs, video, and media clips from the event.
• To increase the impact of your event through social media…
  • Promote the use of the hastags #StandWithPP and #PinkOut.
  • Ask friends or other MoveOn members to emcee, lead chants, and take photographs of the event.

4: Sample Event Program

• 11:30 AM Arrive to set up
• 12:00 PM Play music and build energy while folks are arriving!
• 12:15 PM Begin program & welcome audience
• 12:20 PM First speaker
• 12:25 PM Second speaker
• 12:30 PM Invite last speaker to speak
• 12:35 PM Take group picture
• 12:40 PM Close program
• 12:45 PM–1:00 PM Clean up
• 1:00 PM–1:30 PM Debrief event with your team

Media Guidance—

The idea around #PinkOut Day is to put a face on the devastating effects defunding Planned Parenthood would have on millions of people and to show that people across this country stand with Planned Parenthood in the face of political attacks against the care that Planned Parenthood provides.

It is important to control the messaging at your #PinkOut Day event. The right-wing media would like nothing better than to take something done or said out of context to use against us. Take a few minutes to review the talking points and make sure your event stays focused on our core message of #StandWithPP. If anyone attending your event is carrying a sign that is off message, please pull them aside and ask them to take it down or leave. If you have a larger event, ask for help in keeping an eye out for signs that could be counterproductive.

The top three talking points:

• Planned Parenthood provides 2.7 million women and men a year with essential, preventive reproductive health care, such as birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, and well-woman exams. More than half of its health centers are in rural or medically underserved areas, meaning that without Planned Parenthood, many patients would literally have nowhere else to turn.
• Right-wing politicians in Congress are trying to attack women’s health by blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds—a move that would leave millions of patients across the country devastated by stripping them of the basic reproductive health care they rely on.
• These attacks are a part of a clear political agenda: to ban abortion and roll back access to reproductive health care. That’s not something the American people want, and that’s why millions across the country stand with Planned Parenthood.

Additional talking points:

• Women’s health care is again being used as a political football in order to advance an agenda held by several extreme members of Congress.
• Unfortunately, politicians in Congress are threatening to shut down the government over whether millions can access health care through Planned Parenthood’s hundreds of nonprofit health centers.
• This effort is part of a broader agenda being pushed by an extreme group of politicians to restrict women’s access to health care and their ability to make their own medical decisions.

• Send Thank You’s to partner organizations and speakers at your event!
• Send follow-up e-mails and/or calls to attendees to thank them!
• Hold a longer debrief with key people who helped you plan.
• Celebrate!