Look how far we've come...

This week we got a chance to present our project and were given the opportunity to see what everyone else has done. I really enjoyed the class, and seeing how everyone's project progressed throughout the semester since the last set of presentations. One of the things that was reiterated throughout the presentation was the importance of formative research, because despite what you may think or feel as a researcher, only your target audience can tell you what works for them and what doesn't.

I feel that every group did a great job, and was excited to hear that some groups may actually have their final product be officially incorporated in the settings they intended, and having it become more than just a class project. It really establishes a sense of pride and confidence in what we are learning and how we can apply it in real life settings.

Presentations Reflection

I unfortunately had to leave early from class this week and missed the Sex group which I heard was a very innovative presentation! However, I did get to see the physical activity group and present with my group. I really enjoyed the PA groups presentation and the print media they created. I think they did a great job of really considering that their target audience view these messages were not only children but their parents as well. Working with students myself I was interested to hear the feedback that the students gave the group and it sounded like they received some great feedback. The group members said they were surprised that the calendar with the word on the days was the most popular among the students and I was too. Many of the students I work with are very visual and I would have anticipated them enjoying the pictures more than the calendar with words (goes to show you what I know about kids!). I'm excited to see what this group does for project 3 and it sounds like the school was really excited to keep working with them.

I am also happier with this group presentation! Even though we had to change some things literally right before the presentation, I felt like we communicated our message and purpose more confidently this time (although I haven't seen our grade for it yet :\). I also think our group did a great job of working together early and problem solving when our people didn't show up for the focus group (we practiced our presentation and marketing skills in the library too!). Great job team!

Janice's Reflection #10

This week we had our presentations for Project #2. It seems as though our health campaign was 'well received' this time around. (Not like our first presentation was horrible or anything... this time around, we were more confident about our project). But, now that we've gotten into the meat and potatoes of our campaign, everything about our project is becoming more cohesive.

Just as we learned from our first class meeting, it is crucial to do formative research on your health topic. We definitely have learned the importance of formative research throughout this semester.

Since this semester began, I have found myself taking note of the different channels of media we live with on a daily basis. I find that I ask myself, "are they targeting low or high involvement?" It's interesting to note different tv commercials or advertisements on Facebook since the company who put the message out there most likely went through the same training we are going through in this course.

11/21 reflection

I thought all the group presentations this week were really good and creative. The physical activity group did a nice job of creating 5 different print messages for their two segments of children. The results from their focus group were interesting to learn about which messages were the most popular among the segments. I, personally, would not have predicted that the calendar message to have been as popular as it was. In the end, the group learned that the messages should actually be flip-flopped between the segments. I thought the Gardasil video was especially creative and that it was an appropriate channel for their target audience. I also liked the group's sample Facebook page and how it provided an example of a social media outlet for their message. From all the group presentations, the most important thing that I took away this week was the power of focus groups and feedback from the target audiences. This is extremely important when designing health communication messages because without the direct feedback from the target audience, there is no way of knowing whether or not the message is appropriate or effective for that particular group.

Presentation week reflection

This week we gave our presentations for project #2.  I was interested to see how other groups interpreted the assignment.  In a health communication class that has really given us free creative reign on the details of our campaigns, the variety is interesting to see.  Based on the frameworks provided in class, everyone addressed their topics with proper channels and methods, but seeing their execution was awesome.  The SexFXu campaign was awesome because I never would have thought to actually make a video to post on youtube or to air on tv.  This was such a good idea for targeting their intended population.  I really thought that our group's materials were excellently made and applied well to our target population. The suggestions that we got from our focus groups were the most helpful in really getting an idea  of what this group wants and needs.  For the next project we are going to utilize all the information we got.


On a side note, as I was driving to the coffee shop where our MPH cohort and friends and I like to study, i made a realization.  I truly am a Trendsetter! haha! But it's true! Our friend Alexis had been going to Filter for months before she finally invited me to join her. As soon as i stated studying there, all my other MPH cohort friends stated.  Now, on a consistent basis, we all meet to study, talk, laugh and write together. Just putting my health comm knowledge into relevance! yay!

Different Things for Different People

This week one of the student presentations was on The Healthy Penis Campaign, and how different cities had slightly different media campaigns. San Francisco's messages were positive and humorous, while Los Angelos used a more serious approach. This presentation really caught my attention for a few reasons: 1) I thought humor wasn't very effective and 2) People seemed to appreciate positive messages.

This is something that directly relates to our own campaign on making healthy choices. One suggestion that was made by some of our low involvement focus group participants was to add statistics to our posters (which oddly enough, an article we read earlier in class suggests statistics are more for the highly involved). Not only was the addition of statistics suggested, but using positive messages was emphasized. People want to see how they can improve themselves, their looks, their health. Not how certain eating habits can potentially lead to heart attack or stroke. This experience really stressed the importance of formative research and getting feedback on materials despite what is expected for the segments. Not everyone in a segment is necessarily going to agree, or follow the pattern you expect.

11/14 reflection

This week's student presentation about syphilis campaigns in different U.S. cities was pretty interesting. The Healthy Penis campaign established in San Francisco was an example of a social marketing approach that used humor and positive messages to provide information about the STI issue. An approach I consider to be quite rare in promoting health education and especially STIs. I thought it was funny and witty to see comic strips highlight the "Phil the Sore" and "Healthy Penis" as a way to bring attention to the importance of getting tested for syphilis among MSM. It would be great if we had some kind of similar marketing using humor at Planned Parenthood to educate and motivate other segments of community to get tested.

In our group messages for project 2, we also attempted to use humor (although more subtle) as a social marketing approach. But I think using humor can sometimes be difficult to apply in social marketing and a careful balance has to be identified. The syphilis campaigns identified in class were good examples of how cartoon messages using humor can convey important health information to receptive communities.

Reflection 11/14

This week I read an article about Media Advocacy and was intrigued by the idea of advocacy in general. I enjoyed our guest lecture as a compliment to the information I had ascertained from the article I read and it helped foster some good thoughts for our project. In a hypothetical sense our group is considering doing a social media page for our low involvement group and some sort of television news effort for our high involvement group. When I consider all of this I think these methods are great for providing general information to our target audiences to continue and promote the behavior we are looking for, but is it right for advocacy efforts?

I don’t think so. I think if we are to consider efforts of advocacy we would need to work with the university television system and local networks to “expose” the situation of unhealthy food options in the dining halls. I think in order to do this in real life we would need to be able to show the situation as it exists and find students that were willing to demonstrate or protest for change. I realize this is all hypothetical but I think for our project we should consider some form of a media advocacy campaign by which we share news releases or what-have you to help promote the issue.

Janice's Reflection #10

On Sunday, we had our focus groups. Being that it was the first time I've ever been involved with setting up a focus group, I think it went rather well and it was definitely a great learning experience. Our health campaign print media went through a lot of constructive criticism. Hearing about the likes and dislikes of their initial reactions/feelings about the posters was really interested as well as exciting. Here we were, after weeks of hard work, putting it to the test, and checking to see if our campaign would work in the 'real world' with our target population. The on-campus residents offered a lot of good feedback on areas that needed improvement, and overall, the messages were well-received and considered positive, creative, gender-friendly, and eye-catching.

Some of the feedback was interesting to hear, such as adding a 'positive' statistic to our low involvement print media. So, when our group debriefed after the focus group, we thought about re-making our low involvement messages by going through the 'back door.' We felt that certain statements made by going through the 'back door' may have a bigger influence on those who have a low involvement in making healthy eating choices. We are now going to the drawing board and thinking of creative messages that would capture this segment of our target population.

In the end, we want our messages to provoke positive thoughts in those who walk by and read our print media. We are aware that many college students are 'stubborn' about the food choices they make due to individual reasons. So, hopefully we are able to brainstorm new and insightful ways of capturing the attention of both segments we have chosen for our project.

11/7 reflection

This week I presented on marketing strategies as well as public relation firms assisting public health campaigns. I learned a lot of good points and techniques for reaching the masses as well as saw the scope of a true media campaign from launch to evaluation.  I do not think my article was particularly relevant to our 663 project because our project is such a small scale endeavor, however it is helpful to know for my future.

In class we watched a film about the females portrayal in the media and how manipulation has succeeded in creating a skewed perception of reality for many women (and men) around the world.  I've never seen this exact video however I've read numerous articles and watched many television stories pertaining to this common practice of depreciation.  Being a bigger girl myself, I find ads to be completely irrelevant to me, or they make me feel awful about myself because I've never been a thin girl and I probably wont in the near future.  Even after working out for a year with a personal trainer I still am the same size (less body fat, more muscle but still same weight).  This discouraging fact has made me resign to the fact that I will never be able to shop at Forever 21 or other similarly average serving retail stores.
Regardless of these facts I think an important lesson can be learned from this video is that marketing is used in so many ways with so many different results.  Within public health the literal relevance is little, in my opinion, save for the fact that it alerts us of poor body image issues among women (not a news flash).    However, I do believe the real take home message of this video is that health communication can be so many different things but we need to be aware of and utilize its potential for persuasion.

Within our project I think the applicability would pertain to how we are really going to influence students' behavior using posters or social media...

Killing Me Softly Reflection

I found this week’s lecture very interesting. The video we watched, “Killing Me Softly 3” was informative and provocative. I have always known about the impact media can have on the trends and behaviors of people, but I feel like this video was a more direct demonstration of this idea. I thought it was particularly interesting when the video emphasized the point that many ads on TV or in print use models in ways that have nothing to do with the product, and give no information about the products uses.

I originally heard about this video when I was designing the curriculum for the health class I currently teach. One of my colleagues, a former health educator, said it was a great video to show our students when we teach the nutrition and body awareness portion of our class. After watching this video, one fact that was emphasized really stood out as pertinent for these kids to hear: That the majority of the ads advertised use a body type that only the minority actually have. While I think teenagers, and people in general, realize this fact simply by looking around, it is nevertheless disheartening to hear someone comment on the attractiveness and oogle the goodies of a person and body type that is actually not even obtainable.

When I see videos like this it makes me appreciate advertising that is creative, tasteful, doesn’t make anyone feel bad or starve themselves, and is most importantly, effective. I know when we worked out our posters for our media campaign we were thoughtful to use different body shapes, and in the end actually focused just on the message itself; the food. I think we did a good thing by letting the food speak for itself, and after today’s focus group it seemed as though our audience understood what we were aiming for

Killing Us Softly

Killing Us Softly is a movie, that despite its own age, should be viewed by everyone, especially marketing firms. The message this movie shares with viewers is the indirect effects of how media portrays women irregardless of the product. We see this now, possibly more blatantly, than ever before, and it has become commonplace. Yes, we agree that women are objectified and made into sexual symbols, and we know that it's wrong. But the fact of the matter is, what are we doing about it? A sense of hope arrises when I see certain campaigns that promote real women with real bodies such as the Dove campaign that promotes self-esteem in young girls, but what about the companies that simply state "sex sells." They believe sex can sell anything from cars to condoms or from watches to gum. But why? Why does "sex sell?" Maybe we should look at why our perception of sexualized images is so appealing. I think its disheartening when you flip through the magazine and all you see are thin, tall, flawless women, posed with a backdrop of everyday reality. With this juxstaposition of images placed everywhere, from tv ads to magazines, to billboards...how are girls expected to feel confident when the images that surround them, remind them (remind everyone for that matter) that reality is just not quite as wonderful as what could be...if things were pefect...but not what we would imagine as perfect...but what others show us is perfect. How far does one need to be pushed for this trend to stop, and a healthier message be proposed?

Janice's Reflection #9

Last semester, I took Women's Studies 572: Women & Violence as an elective. It was an interesting and informative class about women in society and ways in which their rights are violated. The film we watched last week called "Killing Us Softly" was a basic overview of everything we covered last semester in the Women's Studies course. This film shows a variety of advertisements portraying how females are used in advertisements and viewed as less human than a male. In the business advertising world, this must prove that women and sex sell an array of products. Apparently, this manner of advertising 'works' in our culture since advertisement after advertisement women are photographed in such vulnerable ways. It would be interesting to find out how much a company would lose in profit if feminists did not purchase products where women are depicted as not being equal to their male counterparts. My hypothesis is that it must not be much as these products are able to continue making new waves of advertisements year after year.

Today we meet with our focus group and I am excited to find out what they think about the print media we have drawn up for our health campaign. We always welcome constructive criticism and hopefully our ideas portray our overall idea of the campaign Delish&Nutrish.

Advertising

The video we watched in class "Killing Us Softly" was pretty interesting on how it analyzed everyday ads & their messages. It's sad to realize that even though society has progressed forward over the past decades in areas like technology & medicine that when it comes to advertising notion that sex sells has continued to be accepted and is more visual than ever. It's all about the T&A! Whether it's a print ad in a magazine, a t.v. commercial, or video game women usually are portrayed for their curvaceous body parts. While men are rarely sexually objectified. Kilbourne also pointed out how ads can influence young children about gender roles and even race. The messages, whether overt or subliminal, that ads send affect our society at a young age. I think it is important to reflect on this video and the information it presented when creating health promotion ads. Especially since the message behind public health should be to serve the common good and empower the public with education.