Marketing Health Education

She thought her milk was bad. She was told that her milk was so bad, in fact, that if she continued to breast feed children, they would all die. Just like her first baby, because she was cursed. So, since she couldn't breastfeed her newborn for fear of killing him with her curse, she watered down 7-Up, put it in a bottle, and used this weak sugar water to sustain her newborn. As you might guess, this baby died, 5 months later, of severe dehydration and his mother's mis-education.

This is a real story. It is painfully documented in the NY TIMES. This story is representative of a global health education and literacy crisis.

Here, in our own backyard, the same health mis or lack of education is contributing to healthcare costs, mortality, and poor health outcomes. Women misuse birth control because they didn't understand the directions. They didn't understand the directions because they are written at a 10th grade level while they read at the 7th or worse. A baby is fed the wrong medicine, in the wrong way, because the mother was too embarrassed to tell the doctor or pharmacist she didn't understand.

But what do we do? How do we help low health literate populations better understand their care? How do we know who they are? We ask. We provide. We research.

Last week, I presented a research proposal at a symposium to understand how low health literate populations can be marketed to better to improve health outcomes. I'm particularly looking at how OTC products can be positioned to low health literate audiences to eliminate misinformation and replace it with consumable health education that can be spread household to household, peer to peer, community to community. What if products and health services were communicated to educate, not to tell? What if we used treatments and interventions as a way to spread accurate, reliable health information and not perpetuate myths?

If that was the case, maybe there would be no bad milk. Only support. Only education. Only targeted marketing. For good.

Look for more updates on my work soon.

War Damn Eagle!

As I sit here in my Auburn shirt, getting dirty looks from all these UT fans, I feel proud. I didn't go to Auburn, but my sister does, which counts for something. I love, love SEC football, wearing dresses to football games, and getting beer spilled on my pearls. I will not apologize for not caring about UT football. My loyalty will always be to the SEC. Keeping with this SEC pride, I thought I'd give a little shout out to the Alabama Department of Public Health

In a state where 31% of the total population is considered obese and 9% have obesity related diabetes, Alabama is up against some scary statistics in their public health battle. To make matters worse, 15.9% of Alabama residents live below the poverty line, this is compared with the US average of 13.2%.

So, how does the Alabama Department of Public Health start to make gains in making Alabama a state that doesn't lead the nation in obesity, diabetes, and poverty? They start a Facebook page, of course.

By now, it is clear that in order to create awareness of public health crisis and then change those crisis causing behaviors, public health agencies must know their audience. They have to reach them where they are.

The Alabama Department of Public Health Facebook page is rich with content for both information seekers, advocates, and public health professionals. Video and article links enrich the public health agenda of Alabama with relevant and timely updates.

This being said, I doubt the Alabama public health folks think that Facebook will make a huge dent in changing behaviors, but, it does create awareness, give advocates a place to show their support, and create a groundswell of support around specific initiatives. For example, Scale Back Alabama, a state-wide weight loss initiative, has it's own cause page.

Most public health maintained Facebook pages leave something to be desired. They are not frequently updated, the applications are not used efficiently, and they struggle to find relevant, easy to understand content. The Texas Department of Public Health doesn't have a Facebook page, however, the Texas Department of State Health Services does. See? No picture, no consistency of voice, and not content rich/diverse.

Facebook alone can not change the health of Alabama, but, it can be a tiny piece of the strategy to arm advocates and target audience with easy to digest information in an easy to access format.

War Damn Eagle! and Roll Tide! ( I guess)

get rich or die tryin

I'm going to stray from the typical blog post here to explore the idea of million dollar ideas for social good.

This story was featured on This American Life, episode 412 Act 3. I point this episode out for two reasons: 1. I love This American Life and 2. this episode highlights people, ideas, and things that are all striving to be remarkable.

At the threat of higher cigarette taxes, Philip Morris commissioned a study in the Czech Republic. This study was intended to show that smoking Czechs actually saved the government money. Philip Morris asserted that smokers died young, saving the government money on their long-term care. Philip Morris was creating a campaign to show the good side of death, or, the good side of poor health. To quote "because people die early you save money in elderly housing." They created a cost benefit analysis to support their product in an entire country. Good idea. Except, you can't say your product kills people and that their early death is a benefit. It just doesn't sit right.

Of course, this study got found out and Philip Morris had some 'splanin to do. They groveled and apolgized and said the study wasn't authorized, even if the data did support their product.

Then, anti-tobacco groups got a hold of this cost-benefit to society and government idea and ran with it. They came up with the notion that, a smoker's cost to society and their credit to society was about even. What anti-tobacco folks could figure in was the cost-benefit to the individual, which of course wound up in the cost column. No one wants to live 10 years less, and five of those last years are with lung cancer.

These findings, the cost to the individual, are now widely used in lobbying and advertising for anti-tobacco campaigns. And Philip Morris is quiet, while their idea gets used against them.

It's fascinating to think about the talent behind socially destructive products. It's more fascinating to think about what that talent could do behind socially responsible products. Sadly, it seems to be all about the benjamins.

lol. omg. gtfo. rotfl......is it worth it?

I curse AT&T at least once a day for a dropped call. I have gotten irate after I was overcharged on three seperate occasions with no explanation on the other end of the phone. If you ask me what I think of AT&T, I'll tell you they are pretty good. I'll tell you they are pretty because of the fantastic work they are doing on a public safety issue: texting and driving.

AT&T hired BBDO do produce an anti-texting and driving campaign.

This campaign was highlighted in Ad Age.

Texting and driving hasn't gotten me hurt (thank goodness) but did get me hit from behind. Texting and driving has caused me to swerve off the road just a little and be discourtious to other drivers. I don't mean to do these things. Texting has become an addiction for most people, and when fighting an addiction you are fighting a habit, an unconcious behavior.

BBDO and AT&T have collaborated to come up with a campaign that gets your attention. Now, they have to keep pushing to change behavior.

Doc, I need Cialis

We've all been there. Hanging out with your parents or grandparents when an advertisement for Viagra or Cialis comes on the television. Someone scrambles for the remote while your grandpa makes a crude joke and your grandmother turns bright red. But, these advertisements are doing more than making you want to crawl under the rug, they are changing the way the healthcare system works.

While a slight deviation from the public health campaigns described up to this point in this blog, the direct to consumer (DTC) marketing of a product that consumers can't buy directly brings up a few interesting points. And, it seems to be adding to the pharmaceutical companies bottom line.

In fact, every $1 the pharmaceutical industry spent on DTC advertising in that year yielded an additional $4.20 in drug sales. DTC advertising was responsible for 12% of the increase in prescription drugs sales, or an additional $2.6 billion, in 2000, according to the summary findings of a study by Harvard and MIT researchers.

Direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs is creating a demand market for a traditionally supply driven market. Consumers are demanding products now while they used to take whatever was supplied to them.

A consumer reports health blog reports, "In a 2006 survey by our National Survey Research Center, 78 percent of doctors said that patients asked them at least occasionally to prescribe drugs they had seen advertised on television, and 67 percent said they sometimes did so."

I'll use the same example the above linked article does. The first time I saw the Restless Leg Syndrome commercial, I was convinced that because I sometimes was fidgety, I was an unlucky sufferer of RLS. That night when I tried to go to bed, my legs were tingly. I knew it! RLS! The power of suggestion is, well, powerful. By advertising all the things that can go wrong with you (and a drug to fix them) consumers can now diagnose themselves, ask for the corresponding drug, and be on their way.

Creating brand-name demand for a drug that has potentially serious side effects and may not be right for each patient is a dangerous game to play. Patient demand for specific products and doctor supply of those products creates a health care system where the best brand wins, not the best treatment.

As far as advertising prescription drugs goes, how far is too far? Or are prescription drugs just the new brand battleground? We'll see.

Again, for levity:

Bringing sexy back...to condoms.

Public health campaigns in developing countries are developed by public health officials and communication professionals in those countries. Sometimes, foreign aid assists in the educational and resource provision to accompany those campaigns. When those campaigns are finished they traditionally have a print component (posters, flyers, etc) and a resource component (free condoms, birth control, vaccines, etc). Without big budgets, this is the best that public health officials can do.

The trained sexual health advisor in the video below doesn't think these tactics work. In fact, she's taking down the public health provided condom usage promotion posters. She thinks the plain white packaged free condoms are making condom usage boring. She's on a mission to bring the sexy back, to condoms.

The take-away here is that marketing socially responsible products doesn't have to be boring. Smart branding, coolness, and relating to your audience are just as important in public health campaigns are they are selling anything else. The other take away is that communications professionals and public health policy folks aren't the only ones that need to be around the table when campaigns are conceptualized. Those on the front lines have the best connection to the lives that everyone is trying to save.

Throwback Special

Jonas Salk's discovery and successful implementation of a polio vaccine eradicated polio from the United States. The polio vaccine became standard for EVERY child born in the United States, so standard, that polio is no longer a concern for parents in the U.S.

So, how was this new health standard integrated into the American psyche? Here's some throwback footage to one of the first fully integrated health marketing campaigns.

Community events, television coverage, and a celebrity spokesperson (Franklin D. Roosevelt) worked to educate American's on the importance of vaccination. Vaccinations against preventable diseases for children became part of the American way.

The polio vaccine campaign, "Victory over Polio" , was one of the first successful public health campaigns in the United States, thanks in part to the March of Dimes. This campaign set the pace for health communication strategies in the United States until technology began to set the pace in the 1990's with the invention of cell phones, the internet, and social media.