The Health Sciences Spotlight

Health Campaigns: The Public Face of Health Sciences Research

  

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For all of the hours that health sciences researchers toil away in the labs, making discoveries that will enhance human health, it would be a waste to have that information be locked away in journals and poster sessions, wouldn't it? This is where health communicators come in - they are the liaison between the lab and the public.  It is a health communicator's job to translate scientific discovery into actionable behaviors for the public. One of the most common ways to do this is through health campaigns, which are strategic efforts to influence a population’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors by increasing awareness of health threats or moving audiences to action in support of certain public health practice.  Campaigns are launched with the intention of generating specific outcomes and/or effects across a relatively large number of individuals in a specific group (e.g., diabetics, young mothers).  These campaigns are usually deployed within a specified period of time using an organized and predetermined set of communication activities, such as public service announcements, pamphlets, or viral videos. 

In order to design an effective campaign that will speak to the intended audience in a way that is engaging, compelling, and relevant, campaign designers need to conduct extensive research on the target group prior to completing the campaign plan to understand what is important to the group, how they communicate, and how to best reach them.

Though extensive research and preparation can reduce the likelihood of unintended campaign effects, designers are not always able to anticipate and eliminate certain effects. There are eleven types of unintended effects that can occur through health campaigns:

• obfuscation
• dissonance
• epidemic of apprehension
• culpability
• desensitization
• opportunity cost
• social reproduction
• social norming
• enabling
• system activation
• boomerang (Cho & Salmon, 2007)

Bonus tidbit: the most famous PSA with unintended effects is the Partnership for a Drug-Free America's "This is your brain on drugs" commercial.

The best defense against these unintended effects is population research prior to and during the campaign development and deployment. Understanding the target population, including their social and cultural contexts, allows campaign designers to create messages and strategies that meet the group’s unique needs regarding health, information, and communication.  Messages must be clear and simple, use accessible language and familiar images, and appeal to the population’s key beliefs, attitudes, values, and worldview.  Designing messages by putting oneself in the target population’s mindset can help with creating an initial message.  Eliciting help from members of that community will provide a second check for message relevance and congruity. 

For more details on unintended effects and creating effective health campaigns that can withstand many unintended effects, click the button below to download our free white paper, "Creating Effective Health Campaigns: Engage, Compel, and Communicate the Intended Message."