Alberta Health Services has rolled out a bold marketing campaign to educate young people about safe sex and experts say the ads might actually get the message across.

The campaign was launched last week and the posters are drawing all kinds of reaction from the public.

The ads are circulating on dating sites and social media platforms and have messages like “Get some without catching some” and “Give her the Big O not the Oh-No.”

The provocative messaging is intended to get young people to click on the ads and then they are redirected to an AHS website called ‘Sexgerms’, which has information on different sexually transmitted infections.

The campaign is meant to target a young demographic and one local marketing expert says she believes it's an effective approach.

“We have to dialogue about these things that sometimes are uncomfortable to talk about and we’re looking at a new generation and a different way that young people are communicating about sex so I think Alberta Health Services has to keep up with that. Government agencies have to keep up with that tone, have to keep up with those methods and have to operate on these media,” said Patti Derbyshire, MRU Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation.

Alberta Health Services says the campaign was started because of an alarming increase in the number of cases of sexually transmitted infections in Alberta.

In 2015, cases of gonorrhea were up 80 percent from the year before and cases of syphilis doubled.

The government blames Internet dating sites for the spike and the goal of the campaign is to educate and encourage young people to protect themselves and ensure they get tested if they are sexually active.

CTV News talked to some Calgarians about the ads and most agreed that they are attention getting and will certainly get the conversation started.

“They’ll get the discussion going that’s for sure. If that’s what they want, then they’ve got it because if you see that on the train, you and your friends are going to be like, hey what's that?” said one man.

“I think they're more shock inducing than anything else, I don't think that will necessarily change the level of education but they will certainly get people talking,” one woman said.

The cost of the campaign is around $250,000.

(With files from Kathy Le)