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?

Kids say the darndest things...

Here's a great way to advertise something that everyone needs, but no one wants to pay for.  

So, the other day I was coding my communication...

So, after completing our first assignment for our health communication class, I was feeling as if I'd done something wrong. Our assignment was to "Code our Communication," looking for all types of exchanges (healthwise or other) that we encounter in a 24-hour time period. When I was done, I realized that the only "health communicating" that I had done was in the form of telling people what I was doing in the state of California. You'd think that working in a bar would allow you many opportunities to talk to lots of different people. Well, it does, but not about health. Then, while watching television, I only saw beer and alcohol ads (which gives some sort of insight into the shows I watch) with small disclaimers about "enjoying responsibly." After my 24-hour period of diligently taking in each form of communication I encountered, I was hit with an abundance of t.v. commercials, radio ads, billboards, etc., that were conveying health information to me. Was my timing off? Should I have shifted my coding time to a more available time slot? Or should the advertising team shifted to reach my demographic? This brings up the issue of solicited vs. unsolicited information. Had I wanted to seek out that information, I could've, had I known it was out there. So, who's going to go first?