The Importance of Focus Group

This week, I found the physical ACTivity presentation to be really interesting. This is because of their focus group. I thought it was so interesting that the adults at the school didn't ever think to ask the children what their opinion was on certain things. The adults all thought that the children would all like particular posters and would dislike particular posters. Turns out they were wrong. The children liked the posters that the adults thought they would not like at all. This shows the importance of pretesting materials and focus groups. Now, the ACTivity groups know which posters will be most effective in reaching children. Even with such a young focus group, the ACTivity group was able to gain information on how to reach their target population. I find this so interesting because they are such a young group, but still knew exactly what they liked and didn't like. Lesson of the week? Focus groups are essential to health promotion messages in order to accurately know your target audience.

Presentation Reflection

It was really interesting to see everyone's ad campaigns that they have developed. I think what is most interesting about them all is how they all target different groups of individuals in completely unique ways. due mostly in part to our various segmentation techniques. I really enjoyed the PA group. Probably because I still watch Sponge Bob and am a Disney fanatic, but I still get excited about children's puzzle books and activities. I think this is why I could see how the children would like the calendar. I also have to say that I really thought that the Delish&Nutrish groups posters were very well done. I think the simplicity really made it eye-catching and professional. Sometimes posters can become too cluttered and hard to read. When we spoke with our focus groups, someone mentioned that it had too much information to be on a billboard. This is definitely something to think about when putting together materials, because placement and the type of advertisement should be vital when putting together campaign materials.

Our class is amazing!

Our class did such an amazing job on all of the projects. I am really proud of everyone. All of the posters looked very professional and creative. One of my favorite parts about this class is how we are able to be creative about how we want to portray our messages. I really liked both of the other group presentations. I liked the "Delish and Nutrish" posters which were very basic and straight forward. I think simplicity was the right direction to go for posters that are going to be hung in a dinning hall. Most people going to the dinning hall don't want to sit and read a poster forever, so they won't if it is long and hard to understand. I liked how colorful the posters were as well, they seemed eye catching enough that I would probably read them if I was in the dinning hall. The physical activity group did a great job as well on their posters. I really liked how they tried to combine the involvement messages and ended up with a poster that most of the kids preferred. I also liked the idea of the bracelets for the children to remind them about physical activity. I think they are cheap enough, but would mean a lot to the children to receive them. Not to mention, a plastic bracelet is easy to wear everyday, so the reminder would be constant. Good job everyone!

Presentation Re-Cap

It was great to see the class presentations this week. I particulary liked seeing the Physical Activity and 'Delish-Nutrish' posters and listening to the feedback they received from their focus groups. Our projects have come along way since Project #1 and it will be fun to see the final results of our projects in a few weeks.
On another note, it was fun to brainstorm on the channels and methods to promote our campaigns. Many years ago, I worked on a couple DV/SA campaigns and never realized I would be referencing my experience in the future! I worked on one specific project that focused on Domestic Violence amongst teenagers. We had billboards, movie advertisements at the local theater, and a couple kickoff events in addition, we wrote a query letter to high school teachers we had previously worked with. The letter explained the purpose of the campaign mentioned that we had different posters and educational materials for pick up/drop off. At that time, I remember thinking that we wouldn't have a great turnout and I was wrong...we gave out over 500 posters in 2 weeks! (Hopefully they were put to good use!!!)

More of the Media Stalking Me, Personally

The Gardasil commercial - "It's not just a girl thing...it's a boy thing, too"(something like that) temporarily placed itself on my Pandora radio station website. Could it be that this happened because I've been doing a lot of 'HPV' google searches? I'm pretty sure it's no coincidence that American Apparel ads and swim ads pop up on the side of my g-mail and facebook page (I swim and I frequent Americanapparel.com often). So, I'm pretty sure someone is stalking me. Besides that--GENIUS. Ads for things I like are on the pages I frequent the most. Brilliant. But, I was thinking about the Gardasil one for men- I don't know for sure if it came up because of my recent internet searches...If it did though, I feel like they targeted the wrong people. I wonder how often it comes up for men. I doubt many men are researching HPV. This time, I think the advertising formula needs to be adjusted a little bit. Maybe instead of showing the ad to people who google information regarding HPV a lot, it should be targeted to men, kind of like how that Hulu Gardasil commercial was targeted at women. Just a thought.

International Agenda Setting

Asher did a nice job of outlining social marketing and agenda setting during his presentation. I was particularly interested in the discussion on Global Health settings because this week I worked at conference which focused on International Health (which, I will not mention by name to protect the innocent, lol). Much of this conference was spent on strategic planning, program development and agenda setting. It was exciting to see participants learn about communication strategies including presentation skills, creating their "personal stories" and practicing their English skills by participating in in-depth interviews. It was also interesting to hear about the real challenges that plague these international organizations and prevent them from getting the word out about their specific issues. Unfortunately, like Asher's slide mentioned, the system for agenda setting doesn't always exist. Participants mentioned difficulties with technology, lack of support and lack of funds which we all know can prevent important issues from getting the attention they deserve. One participant shared her experiences about how she shared her story with a newspaper in her country and the positive feedback and buy-in she received because of it. I'm really hopeful that the others in the conference will have similar experiences (including me~).

10 words or less.....

Part of Asher's lecture talked about sound bites in relation to media advocacy. He stated that they should be 10 words or less, which is so short. I feel like it is really hard to fit all the work and background research that we have done on an important topic into such little space. Especially if it is a behavior that has multiple steps or components. Do you just encourage one aspect of the behavior at a time, or is it best to give a very broad overview in the limited space? I suppose with Gardasil we would want to encourage receiving the vaccination, but at the same time I feel that information about the vaccine is important and how many doses of the vaccine are needed are also very important. A saying we were thinking of putting on some of our posters were Gardasil, it's not just for women anymore. That did not seem very informational and it already took up 7 words. So I think a very difficult part of our project is just figuring out what is really important, and what we most want our audience to know about our product.

3FOUR50

I spent my entire weekend at Filter Coffee Shop in Hillcrest. The entire two days went to do doing research for diabetes in India. (For those of you who don't know, India is projected to have about 30-something million people diagnosed with diabetes by 2025). While doing this, I came across www.3FOUR50.com. It is an initative that is funded by the Oxford Health Alliance. It's focus to prevent the THREE risk factors (ppor diet, lack of PA, and poor diet) that lead to the FOUR chronic diseases (CVD, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and some cancers) that contribute to more than FIFTY percent of deaths worldwide. Why do I mention this? Because their main method of communication is through social networking and the power of the Internet. "The site is not only building an online global health community- it is also communicating health messages in an innovative and compelling way" (www.3FOUR50.com). My point is that their major way of spreading their message is through social marketing. They are working to fight diabetes through social marketing. Their main method? Advocacy. Policy makers do not see the urgency in the diabetes problem. Hopefully, this will be one way to catch their attention.

A Unique Take on Marketing

We were sitting at Filter in Hillcrest, working diligently on pub health work, as we always are. Then suddenly a couple of tall figures waltzed into the coffee shop, dressed as a dominatrix type nun, faces painted stark white with colorful eyeshadow painted on like a work of art. These are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. To outsiders they may appear to be just another spectacle in the gay community, but they really are much more than that. In fact, they are actually public health figures in the community. They can be found out most of the time, imbibing with their fellow community members, but something sets them apart. They use their outlandish looks and gender-bending attire to gain attention and then spread a wealth of knowledge about AIDS prevention and safe sex practices. They hand out condoms that are packaged in educational guides for proper condom application and how to negotiate condom use. I view this as a type of marketing for the gay community. These waking advertisements are not only role models, but reminders to everyone at the bar (a high risk population) that AIDS preventions is as simple as wearing a condom and by posing as a bar "conversation piece" these figures can stir up conversations about condom usage, increasing the social acceptability of AIDS prevention and decrease the chances of risky behavior. However this is not all they do. They are champions in the community who strive to enact change in policy through raising community awareness and community building. This is definitely a unique take on health communication.

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

I am not new to seeing men in drag. My roommate/best friend is gay and we frequent the Hillcrest area, which is always a new and exciting experience. This includes: men in leather, men in drag, men as women, women as men, and the sexually ambiguous- not saying that there aren't normal looking people, they just aren't as exciting. One group of 'ladies' that I have frequently seen, from afar, look like what seem to be Catholic nuns. Upon further investigation, they are clearly not women. But, in fact, men in insanely heavy make-up and habits. Some even have beards. They are called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Sisters are an international organization that calls attention to sexual intolerance and gender inequality. One of their main focuses are promoting safe sex, as well as providing education about drug use and other risky health behaviors. They mimic real nuns by dressing in habits and other nun-like apparel whenever they are out, but unlike real nuns, they are satirizing gender and morality. If you disregard how many people they might be offending, it is a very interesting health marketing tactic. Their non-conventional dress elicits a lot of inquiries, and therefore brings attention to these issues. They are very 'fabulous,' if you will, and they always walk around in group, which catches the attention of everyone within eyesight. When I first saw them, I asked my roommate, "what the..." then he told me about them, then i wiki-d them to learn more information. I am sure information is disseminated in this way for anyone who sees them. Dressing up with all that make-up seems incredibly time consuming, but their dedication to health is awesome. The reach of the Sisters may not be extraordinary, but they are growing and each person that is educated is valuable, and hopefully, one less [that is unaware about safe sex, unaware of the effects of STI's, that is a pregnant teenager, that becomes infected with HIV, that makes a poor health decision, that gets cervical cancer].

Yellow Fever

I took a gender and literature class at UCSD while I was an undergrad. It's amazing the subtle hints in magazines, newspapers, and pretty much any media that degrades women in ways that we don't even realize. We don't realize because we see it every day and we're used to it. We don't even find it offensive most of the time. When we see models in magazines, we (women) most likely don't think, "Wow, I totally am offended that that woman is holding an iron. I hate ironing. AM I LESS OF A WOMAN? WHAT AM I WORTH." We usually think "Wow, she's hot. How can I be hot like that."Not that that is any better, but it shows how we kind of ignore that small innuendo as to how women should be viewed.

This brings up another example that has been brought to my attention in the past. At UCSD there was a viral YouTube video that went around called, "Yellow Fever," narrated by a male Asian student that went around. It was about how all the Asian girls like white guys, leaving all the Asian guys in the dust. I believe that a lot of this is the media portrayal of Asian men. They are almost never main characters, they often have heavy "FOB" accents, and for the most part, are stereo-typed, which in turn, reinforces this stereotype over and over. The media can influence in a way that we're not even aware of. Like the way it's more okay for the man to be fat in a relationship whereas the woman still must stay thin and pretty. For example, every tv show- Family Guy, The Simpsons, King of Queens, American Dad, that one show with Jim Balushi- all fat not attractive men, all skinny pretty women. Habituation- we're used to it, so we just accept it and accept the ways that it affects us. Maybe if we can figure out how to apply this to health well enough, being healthy can be normal, too.

There is such a thing as too skinny.

Why do we allow the media to tell us what is beautiful and what isn't? Why are their messages so powerful and how can we get health communication messages to be just as powerful? Everyday we see hundreds of media messages that tell us what to wear, how to look, what to eat, what to buy, where to hang out, etc. Why is it that we don't see as many message about health? Things we can and should do to take care of our bodies. And if we do see any health message, why aren't they as powerful as other media messages? People will listen to almost anything the media tells them, why won't they listen to health communication messages? The media is so good at telling people that they should be skinny, but they don't say how to do it. This is where eating disorders come in. If only the media could tell girls that they need to be healthy instead of skinny.

There is a health skinny and there is a sickly skinny. The other day, Manpreet and I were watching a show about a 23 year old girl who was anorexic to the point where she was gonna die. Her twin sister was a healthy eater and of normal weight. The differences in their looks was appalling. Also on the same episode was girl who was shown going to the grocery store and having high levels of anxiety as a result of being around so much food. These are two extreme cases, I know, but it's happening more and more in our country. It's either anorexia or binge eating, but there is no healthy medium. This is what is happening as a result of the media's powerful messages that women should be skinny, because if they aren't skinny, they won't be pretty, and will never be loved, etc. etc. I think that the modeling world is slowly coming to their senses. Recently, Madrid and Milan both banned models from their fashion weeks if they were deemed "too skinny". Finally, something that sends a message that their is such a thing as too skinny. Now, this message needs to travel across the ocean to our country so that young women know that they don't need be a certain size to be "pretty".  And if only, the all powerful media could be the one to convey this message.

Photoshop Magic

My sister and I are obsessed with Photoshop and all of the interesting things that you can do to pictures with it. Therefore, I really enjoyed the movie that we watched in class. Especially when she talked about how they use these super skinny models that only represent a small proportion of the population and that most of it is based on genetics. However, I think that the majority, if not all, of what we see in magazines has been mastered by Photoshop. I think I realized how out of control this has gotten when I saw an article (or a story on TV or YouTube, I can't remember) about how they actually use Photoshop to make plus size models bigger! I think what was most shocking about this story though was how much backlash it was getting that they would make someone fatter, but people in magazines are made skinnier, buffer, "sexier" on every page of every magazine and you hear very little about this. I have to admit, my sister and I have been trying for years to get my mom to let us Photoshop a family picture of us to send out as our Christmas card (clearly, this would be a joke), but she still won't go for it. I think if everyone played around with Photoshop and knew what you could do with it (the possibilities are truly endless) you would never look at advertisements and pictures in magazines, books, movie posters, books, or billboards the same again!

Are "healthy" messages really healthy?

I also thought that the reading this week was interesting. Especially the article on Kellogg's and the PowerPointon Jean Killbourne's book "Can't Buy Me Love." After reading, the first thing I thought of was the Kellogg's commercial where the slender woman is trying to fit herself into her jeans while the voice over says something like "lose 5 lbs in two weeks by replacing 2 meals a day with Kellogg's Special K." At first glance, maybe this commercial can positively influence someone to change their diet or eat special k to improve their health but the bottom line is (and this is where the Jean Killbourne influences come in): this particular advertisement is targeting women who are insecure about their weight and are willing to crash diet and live off cereal to look like the woman in the commercial who was probably underweight and never had a weight problem to start with!!!!
There are so many "health focused" (for profit) commercials these days and I can't help thinking that maybe these advertisements do more harm than good. First of all, many of the ads focus on looks, use actors/actresses that are not realistic sizes and try and make weight loss and good health seem like a quick fix "just eat this..." As a consumer, it is really difficult and frustrating to see these pseudo-health ads... I'm wondering how many public health campaigns we will need to create to counteract the other negative images in the media... Can we (as public health professionals) even compete?

yogurt....yum

The reading this week was interesting. Although Kellogg was the first company to advertise improved health outcomes by consuming their product, it seems so standard nowadays. I feel like I can't go grocery shopping without having to sift through all of the health messages on the packaging, deciding which to believe and which have unhealthy ingredients hiding inside. Even at certain grocery stores that advertise that they are "fresh and easy" (without naming any names) have a lot of items that are advertised as healthy options, but after inspecting the nutrition labels are filled with saturated fats and sugar. It is really hard to think past all of the healthy propaganda that food companies put out there. I can see how people not in public health, who don't learn about how obese the United States is every week, could take all the advertisements at face-value and think they are eating healthy when in reality their food may just me low in fat, but high in sugar and salt. Even people who are in public health (myself) get sucked in sometimes. For example: frozen yogurt!!! Where most flavors are advertised as non-fat!!! Sounds AMAZING!!!!! right? It is one of my favorite desserts that I am always in the mood for, and even after I read the nutrition facts and pile it to almost half a pound worth, still have this idea that it is a healthy option. Although in some respects it may be a "better" choice it is not always a "good" choice. For example my favorite holiday option at my local yogurtland: pumpkin has 36.1 calories per Oz!!!!!! Which, lets be honest, I usually get 8 oz which puts me at 288.8 calories, plus of course my delicious toppings such as walnuts and graham crackers and I am easily past 300 calories and over 48 grams of sugar. So not really something I should be treating my self to every other day, no matter how much I really want to. Although advertising is somewhat regulated by having to meet certain guidelines to have claims such as "high in fiber" or "non-fat" they are still very misleading because they are not advertising their other hidden high sugar, fat, or salt. No wonder people have such a difficult time in the United States to make healthy options; advertising companies are feeding on our weaknesses and getting us to buy food we think is "healthy" when that is not always the case.