Recently in class we discussed if health campaigns should use a more heuristic approach (such as using women in bikinis) to appeal to a larger target audience and/or catch more attention by using similar appealing icons. Do health campaigns need to set the standard when it comes to choosing how it portrays its messages? Should we “stoop down” to the media’s level in order to drive the point home and minimize the systematic more facts based approach?
I know that I depend readily on cues and have more of a peripheral processing approach when it comes to adds. I tried to answer some of these questions as I flipped through TV channels and imagined myself as an unknowing target audience. I realize that while I have high expectations of health campaigns to set the standard, I don’t have the same expectations of the rest of the media. I’m more likely to be critical of a health campaign because I believe that it is supposed to have some standard of truth and decency. However, when it came to the rest of the media, while I do find an abundance of adds that are offensive, I generally don’t start out with the same readiness to have a critical approach. In fact, I looked forward to watching some advertisements during the super bowl this past weekend in hopes that I would find one to be appealing or catchy. How do we make health campaigns that are just as appealing but that still set the standard when it comes to how it portrays its message?
One approach the Department of Health in the
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4 comments:
The following is a link to the anti UK Dep. of Health anti-smoking campaign add for youth.
http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/482642/Anti-smoking-drive-targets-young-adults-appeal-vanity/
Very interesting! My comment : Consider using larger font size. This will enable your readers to skim the article for those things that interest them.And to zero in on these.
TaTa
I have never before thought about this issue, and I probably never would have had you not put it on your blog. That said, I think that ads pertaining to health issues must be every bit as catchy as other ads in order to be seen. This does not require trashiness. There are plenty of health ads that are catchy because they are SERIOUS and play on one's emotions (e.g., the ads about kids and second-hand smoke). But they cannot be merely informative or no one will listen to them. As with everything, there must be a narrative, people must be able to relate directly to the experience in the ad.
In all forms of education, and education being the ultimate goals of any form of health "campaign," one must realize their target audience. In saying this it means we are forced to reckon with how to evolve our traditional (and occasionally antiquated) ways in order to appeal to an audience larger, and often younger, than ourselves. As a teacher I find this continually more difficult because what we think of as "dumbing down" information is the same thing people in generations before us thought about when considering how to appeal to us. I would suggest that some of the greatest insight can be gathered from your target audience itself by asking them how certain types of ads affect them and which ones they respond to in the ways that you would essentially like them to. However, I agree with the previous comment in that trashiness is unnecessary and that the integrity of your campaign should not be compromised in an attempt to get people to listen.
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