Pulling it all together.... health communication style.

All of us may be wondering it but feeling too selfish to say it.  So I'm going to.  How much am I worth after finishing my Master's?  If I added up all of my student loans, books, registrations fees, months of rent, lost wages for hours spent studying and not working, snack food for finals weeks, and bar tabs for the nights after finals weeks, I would be worth A LOT.  I'm talking big bucks.  But from what I hear, this "job" doesn't pay much.  How much?! It's never a direct answer, just "not much."  Tuesday's class got me thinking about my ROI- My return on investment.  The investment that I put into my  undergraduate education was well worth it. But, the undergraduate degree is "so hot" right now, and everyone is doing it.  So how do you set yourself apart? You go BACK to school, and get a Master's. But not just any Master's, one in Public Health. So, you spend 2+ years building your credentials, your education, your real-world knowledge, and explaining to people what 'public health' actually is, then you go out and try to get a job.  You know what you're trying to do... save the world. But why don't employers see that, and pay you accordingly?  Justin Timberlake can charge $500 for front row tickets to his shows, but you, who is actively saving the world and its inhabitants, can only charge $40,000 a year for your services? Something is not right.  And its not just public health, this problem is happening in many fields.  But we do what we do best, and we adjust and adapt... we enjoy our jobs and realize that we are making a difference, even though we may not have Madison Square Garden to cheer us on.

Health Communication on the front page...

The Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN.org) has decided to go where the people are. Their outreach efforts have included a national telephone hotline for sexual assault survivors for the past 14 years equipped with amazing personnel to offer counseling.  But, they are now taking it a step further.  They have started an instant-messaging based hotline for those survivors who otherwise wouldn't call, or for those who feel more comfortable behind the privacy of their computer screen.  As an advocate for survivors, we understand the need for confidentiality, and having an online haven for survivors allows that.  This resource will allow so many more victims to feel comfortable about talking to someone and help them start on their road to healing.

One Less...

Promotional campaigns for Gardasil, the HPV vaccine for young women developed by Merck, has done an amazing job at targeting their perfect audience... PARENTS.  By producing commercials and ad campaigns that portray parents of young women doing the responsible thing and having their daughters vaccinated sets into place a social norm that wasn't necessarily there before. Because HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, it is often a taboo or difficult issue for parents to discuss with their children.  This difficulty has become a huge barrier to vaccination.  By researching what it is that makes some people hesitant to vaccinate their daughters, it seems Merck has landed on an important discovery.  Initial commercials only portrayed the young women discussing how important it was to become "ONE LESS." Recently, the commercials have shifted their focus to the parents and their role in their children's health, even urging them to talk to their daughter's doctor.  Making it the parent's responsibility and not having to rely on the young women to have to ask their parents for an STD vaccination makes it seem more likely that more women will be vaccinated in the future, making these young women... ONE LESS!

For more information check out Gardasil's website: www.gardasil.com

The TRUTH be told...

I love these commercials.  Working on my midterm got me thinking... Which ads do catch my attention?  These always get me, especially this one.  Animated mythological creatures singing about arsenic, two undoubtedly "cool" kids setting up a musical number in the park.  It makes you stop the channel flipping just long enough to realize its an anti-smoking campaign... and a good one at that. 

On being different...

This week in class we talked about "hard to reach" audiences.  I agree with the thought that this is a cop-out for those of us in public health (or any other marketing profession) who don't want to take the time to fully understand those that are different.  Being different and not deficient is talked about in everything from women's rights to elementary school classrooms.  The second grade student that is having trouble concentrating and can't sit still long enough to learn.  What do we do?  Put him in the hall or on Ritalin.  It's "easier" this way, instead of having to dig deeper to understand why it is this child is acting the way he or she does, in order to target the actual problem.  This thinking has to spread to public health marketing campaigns in order to actually reach audiences who need it most: Those that are different from the status quo.

How did I become a target...

We were all victims of being a "targeted audience" if you were watching television the other evening when Hillary Clinton took the stage to deliver a speech that was crucial to her campaign in Texas.  Barack Obama was also planning to speak, but his camp decided to bide their time.  At 7:15pm, Hillary took the stage.  All of her supporters tuned into their televisions and were honored with her vocal and political presence... for about 6 minutes.  At that time, Barack Obama, with all of his momentum, chose to make his speech, prompting every television station to respond.  Every station in the United States switched their coverage from Hillary's pep rally in Texas to Obama's speech regarding his win in Hawaii and Wisconsin.  Everyone listening was forced to hear him speak, at least for a little while.  Anyone who was still debating had a chance to hear what he was all about.  He used timing to target an audience that didn't necessarily support him, but that was politically motivated enough to be listening at all.  Brilliant!

As I Was Listening to Him Spill His Guts...

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  His older brother was addicted to methamphetamines and had been in and out of rehab for the past 5 years.  But what was really heartbreaking was how badly it was hurting his mother, with it being her first born son and all, and them spending the better part of his brother's childhood homeless and sleeping in their car.  As I listened to my acquaintance divulge detail after detail about how, when his brother was on drugs, he was a person he didn't know, let alone recognize with all the weight he'd lost, I began to get the feeling that these were things that I shouldn't be knowing.  That this was a private matter.  And all of this started with one quick geographical fact: That Iowa is one of the largest producers of meth in the world.  With that one sentence came a few revealing sentences from him, which in turn produced a few empathetic head nods from me, and then flood gates were released.  I felt I had to let him know that I understood (even though I couldn't fully) in order for him to not feel bad about his brother's predicament.  With all of the nods and active listening techniques, I began to feel like a liar.  How could I possibly understand him?  Was he going to realize that I had no idea where he was coming from, and then feel betrayed?  But then I began to understand that those feelings that I was having didn't matter.  What mattered (to him, at that time) was that he had a captive audience, who was sincerely listening and trying to understand, to hear him and not judge him.  This is a very important concept to remember when conducting formative research; you may have no connection or understanding of the group or person you are collecting information from... but that's the point.  Otherwise, why are you still listening?