Spill Your Guts

This week in class we discussed our "Spill Your Guts: Part 1" assignment. For those not in the class, this is an assignment that we did to see how many strangers (a minimum of three) you can get to spill their guts to you by using the formative research skills we learned in class two weeks ago. A lot of people had some great stories about how they were able to get perfect strangers to have a conversation with them. Now I am going to be honest, I didn't talk to three people. I only did this once. I happen to find small talk with strangers one of the most awkward situations!

But I decided to give it a try again this week with "Spill Your Guts: Part 2". As an athletic trainer at USD I travel with the teams to away games - right now the football team. This week we are in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana to play Butler University! Coming out here on Thursday our flight was delayed two hours so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get someone to spill their guts. So I started talking! Now this time I kind of cheated because I was talking to my own athletes - but on a team of 95 there is no way for me to know every player well so I chose ones that I don't talk to very much (mostly freshman!). The goal this week was to get people to talk about their health. I must admit that I am probably at an advantage as medical personnel but everyone I talked to just opened right up!

Then I started thinking about it and I realized that even people that are not athletes at USD and I don't know well ask me very random questions when they find out that I am an athletic trainer. And while it is flattering that people think I know a lot - I am not a doctor and don't know everything! = ) Half of the time I can't even answer their question and tell them to call their physician. I think it is so interesting that as soon as people find out that you know a little bit more about the body or health than they do that they are very open about their own health. I think we could use this to our advantage when doing formative research. As long as people are comfortable with us they will tell us whatever we want to know! Of course after we convince them that we know what we are talking about! So this just may be another tool for our formative research toolbox!

Where Did Our Message Go?

On Tuesday morning I was reading the newspaper at work and I came across an article titled TV Ads Promote Poor Diet.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070918/news_lz1c18notes.html
My immediate reaction was "No kidding!" Now I know it's been awhile since I've watched Saturday morning cartoons (being a kid was so fun!) but I can remember seeing commercials for Lucky Charms and Captain Crunch, Lunchables, Gushers, Kool-Aid, and Squeeze-Its (remember those sugary drinks - BTW there is a petition on the Internet to bring them back!).

Of course not all kids are going to pay attention to all of these commercials but I think it would be a safe bet to say that a lot of kids remember most of these messages. This is their means of health communication for nutrition. No wonder we are in a battle against obesity!

I remember being in elementary school and wanting my mom to pack me a better lunch (meaning more sugary treats) because no one would trade with me at lunchtime. Now I'm glad that she didn't buy all the food I saw advertised on TV during Saturday morning cartoons! It's interesting that I don't notice these ads as much anymore. I'm sure they are still being run but I just don't choose to pay attention anymore.

This brings us to one of the topics we discussed in class on Monday - selectivity. Meaning we choose where to put our attention based on personal relevance. We are constantly bombarded by so many messages that it would be impossible to pay attention to all of them, so we only pay attention to certain ones. After thinking about it I realized that I must pass a lot of billboards when I'm driving and I can only think of one. There is a Sycuan billboard on the 94 East that I always notice - maybe I'm intrigued with the possibility of going there and winning lots of money! Which probably wouldn't happen - but the advertisers are doing a good job of appealing to people similar to myself (a poor college student)! This presents an interesting challenge for us health communicators. Just because our message is out there does not mean it is being heard! It is probably hidden under the flashy casino ads and cartoon cereal commercials just hoping for someone to choose to pay attention to it!

Going Through the Front Door

This week in class we discussed ways to help get our message as health communicators across to our target population. We discussed ways that advertisers use - does sex, beauty, fame and money sound familiar to anyone? Obviously that technique is effective but is it something we should be using as health communicators? Part of me feels that if it is going to grab the attnetion of people them yes, we should utilize these tools. But are we manipulating our popluation?

We also did a lab in class that got us thinking about planning health communication campaigns. Our group was working with teens and physical avtivty. We chose to target 8th grade females and so of course we chose Hannah Montana as our spokeswoman.
For those of you that do not know who she is I've posted a picture above! Of course it is not realistic that a celebrity would always be the source of the message. But wouldn't it be great if we had the means to have a well-know, influential person be a part of our messages. Maybe it wouldn't always lead to a behavior change but it sure would grab people's attention. So if sex, beauty, fame, and money are effective tools for advertisers, who says they can't be effective for health communicators?