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Capstone: Save the Salton Sea

The rapid deterioration of California’s largest inland body of water has implications for the health and well being of our neighbors, ourselves and other species that inhabit the region and the hemisphere. Although this problem has been recognized for more than two decades, it has continued to grow.

So…

What health communication messages would you suggest for taking this issue on?

Who would your target audiences be, and how would vary messages by different audience segments?

How would you brand your effort?

To take this issue on I would suggest using communication messages that activate the audience to take political action to protect their own health.  The article referenced states that due to the drying of the Salton Sea harmful chemicals are being emitted into the atmosphere that can have severe benefits for the resident living in nearby areas.  I would suggest using fear messages that illustrate what the harmful effects of such chemicals can have on adults as well as for young children and pregnant women & developing fetuses.  

Who would your target audiences be, and how would vary messages by different audience segments?

Target audiences for the campaign would be adults with young families, young adults, and potential real estate investors.  Messages for young families will focus on the harmful effects that the chemicals emitted by the sea can have on their families, the food they eat, and environment they surround them.   Messages for young adults will also focus on the harmful effects of the chemicals but will also encourage them to become advocates for their communities and encourage them to disseminate information. This approach will allow us to gain more allies among a youthful population that will have the time to advocate for change on behalf of their families and communities.  Lastly, we will target real estate investors who have an interest in making sure their investments will be secured.  The article mentioned that as urban areas are expanding thus, development of land and housing is expanding closer to the sea.  Potential real estate investors would be interested in ensuring that the land they invest in is successful.

How would you brand your effort?

I would brand the campaign as an advocacy campaign aimed at protecting the people of the surrounding area.

Would you use media advocacy, and if so, how?

Part Three: Do’s and Don’ts of Motivation and Persuasion

A variety of methods can be used to improve the audience’s reception of motivation and persuasion messages. First, serious health issues cannot be treated too lightly, but at the same time the consequence of not taking an action should not be exaggerated. Credibility can be lost if people are shown dying from a fairly minor or obscure illness but also the message must make a realistic connection between a problem and its consequence. What mismatches between the feel and content do you see in these messages (choose 2)?:

Now try these two:

Analyze the potential effectiveness of one of these smoking control ads;

1. The ad with the picture of a pig feeding a bunch of babies in the mud, aims to get funds to provide care for abandoned infants in Manila. It uses a disturbing photo suggesting that if you don’t donate, these babies will end up like little pigs. The message exploits the situation of the abandoned children, putting them in an inhumane position, creating more shock and repugnance than a desire to help the organization behind this ad. That is a total mismatch between feel and content.

2. The “Don’t Treat Others the Way You Don’t Want to Be Treated” ad tries to get attention of animal cruelty by portraying a sea lion killing a human baby. The image is very violent and repulsive. Although killing an animal could be violent and repulsive, most of the times the killing is done for survival or feeding purposes. While here the victim is an innocent baby and there is no purpose behind.  

Smoking control ads:

The image of the women’s lips with a black hole on the side, insinuating the place of a cigarette, could be effective because, although a cigarette will never leave a mark like this, it shows the bad effects of smoking in the physical appearance.   This could be more threatening and produce more fear to some women, and more to induce a behavior change than other long term and hard to see consequences such as lung cancer. You can’t see your lungs turning black, but you can see the effects of smoking in your face.

Child abuse prevention ad:

Capstone: Save the Salton Sea

The rapid deterioration of California’s largest inland body of water has implications for the health and well being of our neighbors, ourselves and other species that inhabit the region and the hemisphere. Although this problem has been recognized for more than two decades, it has continued to grow.

So…

What health communication messages would you suggest for taking this issue on?

Who would your target audiences be, and how would vary messages by different audience segments?

How would you brand your effort?

Target Audience: A young demographic would definitely have to be the target because the future of this region that faces imminent danger impacts their future more directly than the older demographic. Therefore the messaging has to be targeted to fit their needs and priorities.  Though we have not done formative research to identify the best age bracket to target, we can make an educated assumption that targeting millennials (ages 18-34) would be a good strategy. This is especially true because this is the demographic that the Coachella valley usually attracts through its music festivals.

Branding: It’s very important create a simple, aesthetically pleasing branding image for this campaign to appeal to this young demographic. As mentioned in the message section, using catchy and simple hashtags would help create the pairing between the cause and the campaign.  Therefore some research has to be done, using the input from the target audience, to create the logo, hashtags, and name of the campaign that will strongly resonate with the target audience.

Part Two: Messages that convey motivation and persuasion

Whether the objective is to announce, advise, activate or advocate, the message’s motivational and persuasive contents emphasize change in individual attitudes and group norms with respect to a certain health issue while making the health issue (behavior, social issues and challenges, etc.) foremost in the target audience’s mind. Specific examples of applying activation objectives often derive from fear appeal messages: attempting to arouse fear in the audience by demonstrating to individuals the scary aspects of engaging in a certain behavior and not doing something to mitigate the damage that that behavior can cause. Fear appeal messages usually involve a scary or threatening image or feel to create the desired reaction and promote subsequent behavior change.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model developed by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo and Kim Witte’s Extended Parallel Processing Model provide excellent theoretical bases to frame messages that derive from motivation and persuasion objectives, especially those that appeal to fear. A problem with fear-based messages however is that they may cause maladaptive responses when an individual either does not find the image sufficiently threatening or conversely avoids the message (for example, when its images are overly gruesome). For example, The Partnership For A Drug-Free America’s campaign “this is your brain on drugs” has been criticized for engendering more curiosity than fear among teens in the target audience. Also, if the message is sufficiently threatening, the individual may lack the ‘efficacy’ or confidence to take actions that would eliminate the threat. Feelings of helplessness may actually cause the individual to avoid the message altogether. Therefore, fear messages must be used with caution.

However, other emotions can also be invoked which will help individuals remember a specific message and recall the facts and perhaps the reinforcement associated with the behavior change related to those evoke emotions. Humor, sympathy, excitement and other emotions can also create an association that may help an individual remember the importance of the behavior change. For example, contrast the “feel” of the some of the below messages, all of which have the same general purpose.

And these: http://www.bestmswprograms.com/10-brilliantly-creative-condom-ads/

Research Activity #2:

COMPARE THE FOLLOWING TWO SPOTS WITH RESPECT TO FEAR AND RESPONSE EFFICACY-RELATED CONTENT

https://jasonbiviano.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/health-effects-of-smoking1.jpg

https://twitter.com/nyc_dot/status/314067899079872514

Emotions can be evoked not only by the specific nature of the message but also by images, sounds, and other elements that have both an emotional and physical impact on an individual. For example, concordant and discordant musical notes and colors may contribute to a message oriented toward fear and anxiety on one hand or harmony and sympathy on the other. Individual colors may convey different feelings (Example 1; Example 2) though this may vary from culture to culture.  As musical chords mix different notes to create distinct feelings for different compositions, combinations of colors also vary as a function of the light or heat of a message (see here for more info about this).

In terms of sight and sound, which of the following 3 pieces do you think would create the strongest reaction in an audience?

Research Activity #3

LISTEN TO A VARIETY OF THESE SOUNDS. WITH REFERENCE TO 5 OF THE SOUNDS, GIVE A ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTION EACH OF 5 DISTINCT FEELINGS THEY CONVEY AND COMBINED WITH 5 MESSAGES THAT SOUND AND FEEL COULD BE PAIRED WITH.

Part 1: The Elaboration likelihood model looks at health messages as a continuum of experiences and messages experienced by a person, all of which impact that person’s decision making about behavior change. In other words, persuasion can be done through a peripheral route, or a central route, in which a persons’ attempt to evaluate the message they receive is logical.  In the smoking add, the receiver of the messages clearly sees that the idea conveyed is that of cigarettes, however is given no other information.  To the right person the “bad health effects of smoking” might feel exaggerated or overly scary based on the image, and lack of grounding in a credible source.  All in all I think the image might cause viewers to avoid the scary message rather than be motivated by it.  

The second add, the NYC DOT add, is much stronger and more motivational fear messaging. The central processing of the ad leaves the receiver understanding that speeding = death.  However it also offers additional and credible information to help the receiver process the message and choose to accept and adapt based on the message received. By allowing a person’s peripheral processing to yield a similar conclusion to central the ad is more effective. Additionally the information offered is backed by a credible source and is well reasoned.  

Part 2: I think it is very important when considering which ad might be most effective to consider how messages might vary culture to culture.  As such, I think it is difficult to say which is better for an audience when the intended audience is so different for each piece.  Audience segmentation is very important overall.  For me, the “Embrace Life piece,” is the most effective.  It is not so scary that the receiver would recoil from the message and possibly write it off, however it does clearly address the dangers, and potential loss associated with not wearing your seat belt.  It effectively tugs on the heart strings of parents. The second ad is very scary, and seems more likely to be turned off. The third is funny and take a different approach, but may be more difficult to understand from an American context.

Research Activity #3:

Grand Piano in G minor: This sound make me feel anxious and might be used in before testing messages for those uncertain about their HIV or prostate cancer status for lack of testing

Record Scratch: This sound is youthful, but conveys a quick recognition or change of idea – to me.  It might be used in a funny ad targeting youth for a behavior change.  Perhaps it would be used in celebration of a new behavior.

Scary low String Synth: This sound conveys fear and might be used in an anti-smoking commercial, when the bad guy (cigarettes or big tobacco) come onto screen.

Part Six: Edutainment 

“Edutainment” is defined either as education done in an entertaining style or entertainment with an educational message built in. A prime example of the former is the Soul City TV/Radio series that emphasizes sexual health, produced in South Africa, and the American PBS program “Sesame Street” that targets preschoolers. Examples of edutainment that comprise primarily entertainment but also include important health or social messages are popular songs about social issues (e.g. Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane”), and movies that focus on the power of the tobacco industry, either from a dramatic or comedic tone.

Part One

This module, our first, is structured around McGuire’s Communication-Persuasion Model for health communication. Modules and the broader sections to which they belong parallel McGuire’s “inputs” and “outputs”.   This module emphasizes McGuire’s central input, the Message.

The message is the ‘what’ of communication. Communication messages tend to combine both logical and factual content with emotional or artistic expression. The content is the “light” of communication: It lays out specifically how individuals can improve their health or that of the community or at least avoid or reduce risk. Content can be presented in a variety of forms but has to be adjusted to the cultural and economic context of the audience.

The emotional, artistic and expressive aspects of a message comprise the “heat” of the health communication piece. Messages often employ humor, sympathy or empathy, anger, anxiety or even fear with respect to a specific health issue. Colors, sound and other touches may be added to contribute to a multisensory and more memorable audience experience with the message. A message is a stated or implicit statement that presents a key aspect of communications destination and strategy to the target audience or a segment of the target audience. Messages should derive from key campaign objectives; without such objectives, messages may seem unclear to a target audience.  These campaign objectives represent what the source or ‘sender’ of the message wishes to do: announce, advise, activate or advocate. (Note that messages can manifest more than one or even all of these objectives…but in doing so may risk clarity!).

Brief definitions of these actions are presented below. In practice, many health communication pieces combine two or more of these objectives:

Campaign Objective: Announce

Presentation that direct individuals as to where they can obtain services, buy a product, or (in the case of health fairs) get more information about a specific health issue. They can also direct the individual to watch or read other media which will provide them with additional information and motivation.

Examples:

https://www.prostateconditions.org/outreach-programs/prostate-cancer-screening Or…

http://www.rbcdesign.net/Examples%20of%20Design%20Work%20for%20RBC%20Design%20Studio/styled-4/medical-advertising-marketing-graphic-design.html

Campaign Objective: Advise

Factual statements regarding health behaviors, risk factors, medications, etc. Information objectives are fairly simple knowledge oriented factual statements informing the target audience about the positive aspects of certain behaviors or other actions or their negative impact. Advice takes the form of information that can help address the challenge of presenting new knowledge or can help clarify misperceptions that people may have. Finally, this information may serve as “booster shots”, reinforcing existing knowledge and reminding the target audience of certain issues.

Examples:

https://gettested.cdc.gov/reasons/default.aspx

Campaign Objective: Activate

Motivating or persuading the audience to attend to and act on the advice or other information presented.

Example:

http://osocio.org/message/aids-campaign-takes-a-different-look-at-social-diseases/

Campaign Objective: Advocate

Documentaries and articles, movies, public demonstrations or ads that embrace and promote a social or political point of view.

Examples:

This current one: http://blacklivesmatter.com/

And this one from nearly 50 years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/20510410925/in/photostream/

Campaign Objective: Combined Objectives

Pieces that attempt to achieve two or more of the above objectives.

Examples:

Research Activity #1

The Bedsider website has “where to get it” as one of the ongoing running headlines among 5 others that include a site search tool, “methods,” and “reminders.” The placement on the website of the message on “Where to Get It” tab beside the “Birth Control Methods” tabs if it were the obvious next step.  The blend of using language that feels relaxed and matter of fact like, “And sometimes it’s just nice to get answers in person” is still objective and is directly the “light” of the message. The page feels informal and intimate and persuades the receiver that the process of obtaining birth control is the same.  The attitude that birth control is simple combined with comprehension of birth control drives the behavior of seeking a method on “Where to Get It.”  It is all simple and so the receiver should relax as well. The only image on the page is of a couple’s feet tangled up on a couch further invoking the heat of the message- loving comfort and ease.  The light and wispy font and all lower cased lettering makes getting birth control as natural and easy as falling in love, or onto the couch and cuddling with the one you love.“if you do this, then” type of text appeals to many readiness to change levels.  The language used is supportive of high comprehension by being simple and short.  The relaxed and matter of fact attitude of the information presentation is confident and presumes persuasion.  The same informality and confidence is addressed with emergency contraception-it’s good to “have on hand.  just in case.”  Immediate results of where to get birth control in the “enter location” box are the most direct announcement while still being generalizable.  Results of where to get birth control can be specified down to the type of method as well as the zip code of the respondent.  

http://bedsider.org/where_to_get_it

Advise:

PETA organization’s “Top 10 Reasons to Go Vegan in the New Year” advise the audience on why becoming vegan may be healthier.  This is a website article with many social media “share” buttons scrolling the top.  The tone of the article is hinges on the acceptance that veganism is healthier is, but hard to do and thus needs skills.  Using the context of New Year’s goals motivation, veganism is presented as the answer to accomplishing many.  Veganism is presented as a way to become thinner, happier, save animals, improve your sex life, be healthier, save the planet, etc.  The direct individual health benefits are touted as being “happier,” while reducing cholesterol and avoiding poor health side effects of eating animals.  Emotional appeal is used in guilt with the depiction of a bunny on the website running title and animals elsewhere.  Broader implications of not being vegan induce guilt, like comparing the intelligence of pigs and dogs, and the environmental effects of eating animal products.  PETA relies on its source recognition and trust for audience behavior change.  Facts are supplemented by being presented as hyperlinks.  However, every hyperlink leads to another PETA website with PETA created content.  This is advising using fear, “facts,” and guilt, the article also increases response efficacy.  The binary representation of the information shows every listed fact supported by a positive associated with eating vegan and a negative association with not.  

The intended outputs of the message are vague, it addresses people who are ready to be vegan an need information, or that need more reasons, like vegan celebraties to change interest.  If many vegans already support PETA, this information could have many intended audiences.  This could account for the range of appeals and persuasive measures such as using individualism-your health, and environmentalism.  

Capstone: Save the Salton Sea

The rapid deterioration of California’s largest inland body of water has implications for the health and well being of our neighbors, ourselves and other species that inhabit the region and the hemisphere. Although this problem has been recognized for more than two decades, it has continued to grow.

So…

What health communication messages would you suggest for taking this issue on?

Who would your target audiences be, and how would vary messages by different audience segments?

How would you brand your effort?

Diffusion of and creation of the documentary will happen in two segments.  The first will be the light of the documentary.  It will be the central route information from scientist of the breakdown of environmental effects and health risks.  The health risks will be the only fear appeal used and will be presented using population attributable risk logic.   Current rates will be shown of dried up sea caused disease within certain geographical area, then graphics to portray the future geographical growth of the risk.  In this first part there will also be the objective motivation garnered in the audience to understand why this has not been addressed in 2 decades?  So, the central route will guide the film to explore that issue with politicians.  Any politician or lobbyist willing to discuss the problem and potential solutions will be featured.  This portion of the film will be presented in a very clear and direct manner, because politicians discussing scientific issues can be confusing.  What will also be made clear in this portion are means by which the our activated innovator voters can take action.

The heat of the film will be the portion of the film that features the populations at risk for or already suffering from the health effects of the dried up sea.  Locals of the Coachella Valley will be shown the objective informative first part of the film about the science and policies regarding the sea.  Then, they will speak to their experience of the drying up of the sea.  Their opinions of suggested policy change and health initiatives will be explored.  And stories of living with existing health issues will be shown by interviews with Erin Brockovich.  As this population is largely migrant agricultural laborers, activism within their community will not be pushed.  This is a group already disenfranchised by many parts of political systems.  However, their health needs will be addressed.  All health related interviews will be done by a doctor and they will receive care on the spot.  All HIPAA issues will be taken into account, however IRB permission will not be sought because this will be disseminated under the guise of edutainment.  This portion of the film will activate viewers to advocate for the environment and Coachella Valley population with emotive interviews and panning views of the current destruction.

Part Six: Edutainment 

“Edutainment” is defined either as education done in an entertaining style or entertainment with an educational message built in. A prime example of the former is the Soul City TV/Radio series that emphasizes sexual health, produced in South Africa, and the American PBS program “Sesame Street” that targets preschoolers. Examples of edutainment that comprise primarily entertainment but also include important health or social messages are popular songs about social issues (e.g. Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane”), and movies that focus on the power of the tobacco industry, either from a dramatic or comedic tone.

Rap has historically been a social justice platform.  Therefore it is a natural option for teaching social justice, especially for Joe Truss at an Arts High School.  Truss appeals to his students emotionally with the art of rap and then empowers them to engage academically with the topics as they experience them.  Attitudes of empathy can be created with self awareness as students learn to generalize concepts.  If they can relate to a Dead Prez song, they will consider others that can as well.  This encourages independent thinking and an active search for meaning.

Part Five: Branding

Branding is the process of pairing an image slogan or other stimulus with a product or practice until the two have become synonymous in the mind of the audience. The concept of “branding” derives from the discipline of marketing, with many years many of successful (e.g. Coca-Cola, Marlborough, Mercedes-Benz, Nike, Apple) as well as unsuccessful efforts.  Successes in branding “build relationships between consumers and products” or services that are being marketed.  Audiences eventually become familiar with a product and are reminded of it by seeing the image or hearing a slogan representing that product. One of the best examples of branding in health communication is represented by the long-standing condom promotion and HIV prevention program in Germany, “Macht’s mit: Gib AIDS keine Chance”.  Note that this was initially primarily delivered through billboards and posters; now they have a very impressive web presence as well. 

Examine this measles vaccine poster. Could/should this be better branded, and if so, how?

Part Four: Social Marketing: A Different Slant on Message Objectives

Of major importance to the field of health communication is the Philip Kotler’s “social marketing” framework. Health communication has a mixed ancestry: while generally its roots are in psychology (social, perceptual and behavioral psychology) its other ancestor is in business and economics. Kotler took a business marketing model and applied it to community efforts for health and social change. Building on the work of others in the business world who developed the concept of the “marketing mix” Kotler describes ”4 Ps”: product price, place and promotion. This alliterative framework overlaps to some extent with that of McGuire but specifically details what aspects of the messages content should be included, especially in terms of:

The “Price” of a new behavior (not just as monetary but personal effort and other resources required…and perceived benefits of changing the behavior),

How best to describe ”Product” (e.g. the behavior change itself or the social or environmental change that one attempts to achieve),

The channels by which to send the message that should be used in terms of ”Place” (where a message can best reach someone in terms of a channel or program, and in what stage of life or time of year),

 And finally the overall Promotion (which is often referred to in social marketing as “media mix”: what best mix of print and broadcast etc. to used to initiate and sustain a campaign).

Some have added a fifth “P”, that of “Position”, indicating the specific comparison we can make between our product and that of another on the market (for example, the advantages of getting iron and protein from legumes and quinoa rather than red meat).

As an example, analyze the below anti drunk-driving piece from Kotler’s social marketing perspective:

Research Activity #4

EXAMINE TWO ADDITIONAL HEALTH COMMUNICATION PIECES BRIEFLY, FROM A MCGUIRE AND THEN A KOTLER PERSPECTIVE.  WHICH ONE PROVIDES A CLEARER AND MORE USEFUL EXPLANATORY MODEL, AND WHY?

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1569406/daft-punk-durex-get-lucky-with-condom-campaign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0

Promoting condoms with a popular band whose number one single is conspicuously about having sex is appropriate. The product is a box of condoms with Daft Punk the band on it.  The placement of the band not only in the promotion of the condom brand but also on the product itself could give that product preference over others when side by side due to Daft Punk recognition.  Given strong associations with the song, which may have been stronger when the campaign came out in 2013, a perceived price benefit of purchasing the condom could be “to get lucky.”  Promotion of the product on social media by similar musicians strengthens the campaign.

This campaign has two sources, Daft Punk and Durex.  The trusted source of Durex promoting a message that if you use their product, you will get lucky, will increase interest in their product.  The receiver is anyone having sex that is familiar with the Daft Punk song, “Get Lucky,” which was many people in 2013 when the song was played widely.  The exposure to the song and Daft Punk can leverage someone’s behavior of condom use and brand.  Interest will be garnered by the use of social media and print channels.  Social media because part of the product’s introduction was with Instagram posts by other musicians and print, because the actual box of condoms has Daft Punk on it.

Kotler’s 4 Ps explain this campaign more clearly because, while associated with safer sex behavior, the true intention of this piece is marketing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5hP4DIBCEE

The product of 2 step hands only CPR is promoted here in an edutainment piece that uses disco song “Stay Alive,” “Saturday Night Fever,” and Ken Jeong.  Ken Jeong’s classic character of an irrationally angry gangster positions the 2 step hands only CPR as superior to other CPR methods that are more complicated.  The price of 2 step CPR is the benefit of surviving a heart attack.  The placement of the behavior is anywhere, even a game of charades.

The American Heart Association is a trusted source for serious medical information, but in this campaign, the message is light hearted (sorry couldn’t help myself).  Here AHA is advising the public effectively for possible future emergency response skill acuisition.  By using cultural references like disco and Ken Jeong, the message is accessible and skills acquired are reinforced by the memorable references.  The destination is to use the 2 step hands only CPR within a receiver of everyday Americans.  This receiver does things like play charades and can nod their heads to the beat of Staying Alive while watching someone’s life being saved.  As Ken loudly exclaims in the video, comprehension is easy, this is easy to remember, but serious.  The channel of social media with You Tube will gain wide exposure to the simple message.  So, while attending to the message may be low due to distractions like Ken’s “daughters” and disco, the message is simple enough that these distractions could serve as was to remember the message and reinforce it.  

Part Two: Messages that convey motivation and persuasion

Whether the objective is to announce, advise, activate or advocate, the message’s motivational and persuasive contents emphasize change in individual attitudes and group norms with respect to a certain health issue while making the health issue (behavior, social issues and challenges, etc.) foremost in the target audience’s mind. Specific examples of applying activation objectives often derive from fear appeal messages: attempting to arouse fear in the audience by demonstrating to individuals the scary aspects of engaging in a certain behavior and not doing something to mitigate the damage that that behavior can cause. Fear appeal messages usually involve a scary or threatening image or feel to create the desired reaction and promote subsequent behavior change.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model developed by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo and Kim Witte’s Extended Parallel Processing Model provide excellent theoretical bases to frame messages that derive from motivation and persuasion objectives, especially those that appeal to fear. A problem with fear-based messages however is that they may cause maladaptive responses when an individual either does not find the image sufficiently threatening or conversely avoids the message (for example, when its images are overly gruesome). For example, The Partnership For A Drug-Free America’s campaign “this is your brain on drugs” has been criticized for engendering more curiosity than fear among teens in the target audience. Also, if the message is sufficiently threatening, the individual may lack the ‘efficacy’ or confidence to take actions that would eliminate the threat. Feelings of helplessness may actually cause the individual to avoid the message altogether. Therefore, fear messages must be used with caution.

However, other emotions can also be invoked which will help individuals remember a specific message and recall the facts and perhaps the reinforcement associated with the behavior change related to those evoke emotions. Humor, sympathy, excitement and other emotions can also create an association that may help an individual remember the importance of the behavior change. For example, contrast the “feel” of the some of the below messages, all of which have the same general purpose.

And these: http://www.bestmswprograms.com/10-brilliantly-creative-condom-ads/

Research Activity #2:

COMPARE THE FOLLOWING TWO SPOTS WITH RESPECT TO FEAR AND RESPONSE EFFICACY-RELATED CONTENT

https://jasonbiviano.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/health-effects-of-smoking1.jpg

https://twitter.com/nyc_dot/status/314067899079872514

Emotions can be evoked not only by the specific nature of the message but also by images, sounds, and other elements that have both an emotional and physical impact on an individual. For example, concordant and discordant musical notes and colors may contribute to a message oriented toward fear and anxiety on one hand or harmony and sympathy on the other. Individual colors may convey different feelings (Example 1; Example 2) though this may vary from culture to culture.  As musical chords mix different notes to create distinct feelings for different compositions, combinations of colors also vary as a function of the light or heat of a message (see here for more info about this).

In terms of sight and sound, which of the following 3 pieces do you think would create the strongest reaction in an audience?

Research Activity #3

LISTEN TO A VARIETY OF THESE SOUNDS. WITH REFERENCE TO 5 OF THE SOUNDS, GIVE A ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTION EACH OF 5 DISTINCT FEELINGS THEY CONVEY AND COMBINED WITH 5 MESSAGES THAT SOUND AND FEEL COULD BE PAIRED WITH.

“Smoking Means Becoming a Slave to Tobacco”

Equating oral sex with “being a slave” will cause defensiveness in anyone who has received or given oral sex.  The image conveys a more sexual violence scenario of shame and degradation.  Like most sexual assault survivors, this leads to a numbing non response.  Ostensibly, many of the age group that smokes will have engaged in oral sex and suggestions of involvement slavery or sexual assault engenders defensiveness.  This defensiveness will lead to rejection of the message.  In addition to the inappropriateness of the slave comparison, it entirely takes any notion of self efficacy off of the table and can produce feelings of fear and loss of control.  If you’re already smoking, aka a slave, you have little agency, therefore you will do little to change.

5 Sounds

A Rich Fun Violin Sound Sustained on F.  Dark and ominous, preparing for a long road ahead.  Acute medical problem unfolding like a stroke, heart attack, or premature birth.

A Single Synthetic Bass Drum Kick.  Gives feelings of being taken aback with surprise.  Would accompany a grave cancer diagnosis or very unexpected news like triplets.

Record Scratch with a Woman Saying Everybody’s Doing It.  Feeling overwhelmed due to pressure lonely and isolated.  Combined with an anxiety awareness campaign.  Especially social anxiety.

Musical Accent With Tribal Hand Drum Melodic Percussion Fill.  Feels innovative, aimed toward new horizons, fresh and original and empowered.  Motivation for getting a gym membership.

A Sustained Chime from a Tibetan Bell.  Calm alertness feeling.  Realizing you’d overcome an impulsive behavior, like not being addicted to cigarettes anymore, or not declining a 3rd alcoholic drink.

This is very engaging and effective because it balances emotional appeal with severity and control.  The audience has the ability to comprehend the severity of abuse without being overwhelmed with emotion.  By watching a cartoon when with a real life child it could be too emotional.  The audience is motivated to respond because while they interpret the child as having no control, they do and probably interpret objective motivation.  Given an accessible danger control measure, a hotline, the receiver can respond.  

“Real Children Don’t Bounce Back”

“When You Look at a Young Girl as Something More You Need Help” The juxtaposition of the young child face with a mature female is attention grabbing.  The absurdity of the image discredits its written message.  For an issue as complex as ‘statutory rape,’ the message should be direct and clear with no gimmicks or layered meaning.  The difference between a consenting teenager and a child not yet at puberty is enormous.  Because the image is so unrealistic, the entire message loses credibility.  Any public ad in the US related to sex doesn’t need much to grab attention because United Statesians are already so uncomfortable about their sexuality.  Older men that are ‘statutory raping’ ‘children’ below the age of 18 will dissociate from this image because nothing about it will likely resemble their experience.  They might agree that anyone that sexualizes young children DO need help, and never consider that it is directed toward them.  The destination effect is completely lost.

“Smoking Means Becoming a Slave to Tobacco”

Equating oral sex with “being a slave” will cause defensiveness in anyone who has received or given oral sex.  The image conveys a more sexual violence scenario of shame and degradation.  Like most sexual assault survivors, this leads to a numbing non response.  Ostensibly, many of the age group that smokes will have engaged in oral sex and suggestions of involvement slavery or sexual assault engenders defensiveness.  This defensiveness will lead to rejection of the message.  In addition to the inappropriateness of the slave comparison, it entirely takes any notion of self efficacy off of the table and can produce feelings of fear and loss of control.  If you’re already smoking, aka a slave, you have little agency, therefore you will do little to change.

This is very engaging and effective because it balances emotional appeal with severity and control.  The audience has the ability to comprehend the severity of abuse without being overwhelmed with emotion.  By watching a cartoon when with a real life child it could be too emotional.  The audience is motivated to respond because while they interpret the child as having no control, they do and probably interpret objective motivation.  Given an accessible danger control measure, a hotline, the receiver can respond.  

“Real Children Don’t Bounce Back”

5 Sounds

A Rich Fun Violin Sound Sustained on F.  Dark and ominous, preparing for a long road ahead.  Acute medical problem unfolding like a stroke, heart attack, or premature birth.

A Single Synthetic Bass Drum Kick.  Gives feelings of being taken aback with surprise.  Would accompany a grave cancer diagnosis or very unexpected news like triplets.

Record Scratch with a Woman Saying Everybody’s Doing It.  Feeling overwhelmed due to pressure lonely and isolated.  Combined with an anxiety awareness campaign.  Especially social anxiety.

Musical Accent With Tribal Hand Drum Melodic Percussion Fill.  Feels innovative, aimed toward new horizons, fresh and original and empowered.  Motivation for getting a gym membership.

Part One

This module, our first, is structured around McGuire’s Communication-Persuasion Model for health communication. Modules and the broader sections to which they belong parallel McGuire’s “inputs” and “outputs”.   This module emphasizes McGuire’s central input, the Message.

The message is the ‘what’ of communication. Communication messages tend to combine both logical and factual content with emotional or artistic expression. The content is the “light” of communication: It lays out specifically how individuals can improve their health or that of the community or at least avoid or reduce risk. Content can be presented in a variety of forms but has to be adjusted to the cultural and economic context of the audience.

The emotional, artistic and expressive aspects of a message comprise the “heat” of the health communication piece. Messages often employ humor, sympathy or empathy, anger, anxiety or even fear with respect to a specific health issue. Colors, sound and other touches may be added to contribute to a multisensory and more memorable audience experience with the message. A message is a stated or implicit statement that presents a key aspect of communications destination and strategy to the target audience or a segment of the target audience. Messages should derive from key campaign objectives; without such objectives, messages may seem unclear to a target audience.  These campaign objectives represent what the source or ‘sender’ of the message wishes to do: announce, advise, activate or advocate. (Note that messages can manifest more than one or even all of these objectives…but in doing so may risk clarity!).

Brief definitions of these actions are presented below. In practice, many health communication pieces combine two or more of these objectives:

Campaign Objective: Announce

Presentation that direct individuals as to where they can obtain services, buy a product, or (in the case of health fairs) get more information about a specific health issue. They can also direct the individual to watch or read other media which will provide them with additional information and motivation.

Examples:

https://www.prostateconditions.org/outreach-programs/prostate-cancer-screening Or…

http://www.rbcdesign.net/Examples%20of%20Design%20Work%20for%20RBC%20Design%20Studio/styled-4/medical-advertising-marketing-graphic-design.html

Campaign Objective: Advise

Factual statements regarding health behaviors, risk factors, medications, etc. Information objectives are fairly simple knowledge oriented factual statements informing the target audience about the positive aspects of certain behaviors or other actions or their negative impact. Advice takes the form of information that can help address the challenge of presenting new knowledge or can help clarify misperceptions that people may have. Finally, this information may serve as “booster shots”, reinforcing existing knowledge and reminding the target audience of certain issues.

Examples:

https://gettested.cdc.gov/reasons/default.aspx

Campaign Objective: Activate

Motivating or persuading the audience to attend to and act on the advice or other information presented.

Example:

http://osocio.org/message/aids-campaign-takes-a-different-look-at-social-diseases/

Campaign Objective: Advocate

Documentaries and articles, movies, public demonstrations or ads that embrace and promote a social or political point of view.

Examples:

This current one: http://blacklivesmatter.com/

And this one from nearly 50 years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/20510410925/in/photostream/

Campaign Objective: Combined Objectives

Pieces that attempt to achieve two or more of the above objectives.

Examples:

Research Activity #1

http://www.buzzfeed.com/joshrichardson/what-people-who-go-to-therapy-want-you-to-know#.gyZx8GPpl

This video is part of Buzzfeed’s Mental Health Week series.  Buzzfeed is on the channel of the internet and is a source with many contributors.  It’s attractive to many audiences because of this diversity.  It advocates for those seeking help for mental illness while it activates those that need it.   The author is called a “video fellow” and the video was posted from Youtube but produced by Buzzfeed.  The sources of the information in the video are people sharing their own positive stories about therapy,“I want people to know that it’s a good thing, there isn’t a stigma and there shouldn’t be a stigma.”  There is no indication that anyone is benefiting financially from the video which increases its credibility and can help the audience trust its authenticity.  The destination is awareness of the benefits and normalness of therapy.  Interest is gained in the video by using rapid changes in music that align with the tempo of the speaking, and changes between the speakers.  It features 4 different people in 2.5 minutes.  Attitudes are changed to reduce stigma and change behavior of those that should seek therapy.  Each person discusses their experience of changing their attitude and behavior and the positive results of doing so.

Activate

Using an attractive source here increases elaboration likelihood using motivation.  The audience is drawn to the peripheral cue of the juxtapositions of words like “gun” and images of a woman exercising, in addition to juxtaposing black and white and color images .  Of course, these peripheral cues depend on the novelty of feminine beauty depicted with strength.  The primary image of a black and white print of a muscular woman seems to desire challenge.  As mentioned, the source attractiveness could serve as a motivator, however only after central route processing is the motivation for what behavior clear.  The cue to action is supported by information of gyms on the bottom of the print.  The exact intended behavior output is unclear.  If it is to exercise, the images of the subject exercising seem unpleasant and uncomfortable.  “Lift Life” on the bottom corner could mean weight lifting life, or lift your life up/higher/better.  All of these things could be attitude or interest changes.  

The audience involvement is low.  The text on the page is very small and there is no emotional invocation.

Part One

This module, our first, is structured around McGuire’s Communication-Persuasion Model for health communication. Modules and the broader sections to which they belong parallel McGuire’s “inputs” and “outputs”.   This module emphasizes McGuire’s central input, the Message.

The message is the ‘what’ of communication. Communication messages tend to combine both logical and factual content with emotional or artistic expression. The content is the “light” of communication: It lays out specifically how individuals can improve their health or that of the community or at least avoid or reduce risk. Content can be presented in a variety of forms but has to be adjusted to the cultural and economic context of the audience.

The emotional, artistic and expressive aspects of a message comprise the “heat” of the health communication piece. Messages often employ humor, sympathy or empathy, anger, anxiety or even fear with respect to a specific health issue. Colors, sound and other touches may be added to contribute to a multisensory and more memorable audience experience with the message. A message is a stated or implicit statement that presents a key aspect of communications destination and strategy to the target audience or a segment of the target audience. Messages should derive from key campaign objectives; without such objectives, messages may seem unclear to a target audience.  These campaign objectives represent what the source or ‘sender’ of the message wishes to do: announce, advise, activate or advocate. (Note that messages can manifest more than one or even all of these objectives…but in doing so may risk clarity!).

Brief definitions of these actions are presented below. In practice, many health communication pieces combine two or more of these objectives:

Campaign Objective: Announce

Presentation that direct individuals as to where they can obtain services, buy a product, or (in the case of health fairs) get more information about a specific health issue. They can also direct the individual to watch or read other media which will provide them with additional information and motivation.

Examples:

https://www.prostateconditions.org/outreach-programs/prostate-cancer-screening Or…

http://www.rbcdesign.net/Examples%20of%20Design%20Work%20for%20RBC%20Design%20Studio/styled-4/medical-advertising-marketing-graphic-design.html

Campaign Objective: Advise

Factual statements regarding health behaviors, risk factors, medications, etc. Information objectives are fairly simple knowledge oriented factual statements informing the target audience about the positive aspects of certain behaviors or other actions or their negative impact. Advice takes the form of information that can help address the challenge of presenting new knowledge or can help clarify misperceptions that people may have. Finally, this information may serve as “booster shots”, reinforcing existing knowledge and reminding the target audience of certain issues.

Examples:

https://gettested.cdc.gov/reasons/default.aspx

Campaign Objective: Activate

Motivating or persuading the audience to attend to and act on the advice or other information presented.

Example:

http://osocio.org/message/aids-campaign-takes-a-different-look-at-social-diseases/

Campaign Objective: Advocate

Documentaries and articles, movies, public demonstrations or ads that embrace and promote a social or political point of view.

Examples:

This current one: http://blacklivesmatter.com/

And this one from nearly 50 years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/20510410925/in/photostream/

Campaign Objective: Combined Objectives

Pieces that attempt to achieve two or more of the above objectives.

Examples:

Research Activity #1

The destination in this Atlantic Magazine article is clear: attitude change of apprehension toward billionaire philanthropy turned into maintenance of advocacy of more effective social change.  The author garners interest by comparing current billionaire giving with past giving.  With these examples, this article encourage the audience to increase comprehension of billionaire giving by using objective motivation and ability.  While criticizing the “shortcomings” of billionaire giving as being rooted in vagueness with no real effect on poverty, the argument gives direct attitude change.  The author is suggesting that the public should be more discerning of billionaire giving because of historically meager results and questionable motives.  Apprehension is reinforced by a photograph of Zuckerberg being praised by fans reaching toward him juxtaposed with negative praise.  The article frames such fans as gullible to support his “philanthropy.”  The author compares the social improvement goals such as education and health that Zuckerberg and Chan outline to housing issues of the past which all sidestep the most direct answer: redistribution of wealth.  The author suggests current strategies to do so, “abolishing poverty wages, promoting labor rights” and welfare reform. Given the conversion of the channel of The Atlantic from a print magazine to now being more similar to the channel of Facebook as a website and application, the exposure of it’s receiver to Zuckerberg’s Facebook is likely. The concise presentation of this article exhibits familiarity of the receiver, which for The Atlantic is a wealthy person in their 40s.  This is probably an ideal target for attending to and the comprehension of commonly accepted historical tropes of the early 20th century such as; industrial magnates as self interested conservatives, the article allows the ability of the audience to arrive at a desired conclusion-the billionaires of today should take heed from past efforts and acknowledge efforts already being made by the poor and to support those efforts.  Perhaps it is less attention grabbing and more radical to give to labor unions, but stepping in on health and education could be less worthy when there are already systems in place.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-shortcomings-of-billionaire-philanthropy/418938/