Have you seen the video of Philip Spooner? This elderly man from Maine has become an Internet sensation after his moving testimony about same-sex marriage.

How did Philip Spooner frame his message?

The textbook Marketing Public Health discusses the concept of framing at length. The authors define framing as the way an issue is presented to an audience. When this occurs in politics, we might call it  “spin.” The framing matrix model is composed of

• A core position or argument
• A metaphor or analogy to articulate the argument
• A catch phrase or key talking points
• Symbols and images to illustrate the argument
• Implied source of the problem or person to blame
• Core values of the audience

What he did: Mr. Spooner used an effective emotional appeal in a “justice” frame to convey his message. In this frame, all the arguments, metaphors, messages and images communicated revolve around justice. He harnessed (what he assumed to be) his audience’s core values of freedom and equality to bring them to his side.

What he did not do: Mr. Spooner did not cite the over 1,000 federal benefits denied to same-sex couples or other data about the gay  population.

How do we frame messages in public health?

With the exception of certain campaigns (for example, the Truth campaign), public health tends to frame messages using a health frame. In a health frame, we use health as our main argument and all of our images, messages, metaphors revolve around the promotion of health. We assume that health is our audience’s greatest value. Therefore, we try to convince our audience that their behaviors are unhealthy—using (oftentimes scary or alarming) statistics.

Professor Mike Siegel of Boston University’s School of Public Health challenged my classmates and I to find a public health brochure, poster or video that did not cite a statistic. Unfortunately, we did not find much.

Pepsi doesn’t solely rely on facts or statistics about their competitors to sell their products. In a previous blog post I talked about how Pepsi uses a “forever young” frame to sell their soft drinks. In this frame, they argue that if you drink Pepsi, you will be eternally youthful. It sounds outlandish, but they back it up with messaging, images, symbols and music (elements of the framing matrix model). Pepsi appeals to their audience’s core values. Public health can use the same strategies private marketers use. For more on this, please see a recent Wall Street Journal article focusing on how doctors can successfully re-frame their health messages.

Social marketing is based on the application of marketing and advertising strategies to health, behavior and social good. I do not imply that commercial markers are not interested in the social good. However, the main difference between commercial and social marketers is commercial marketers are evaluated by sales and financial impacts as opposed to social impacts.

On this blog, we’ve highlighted many social marketing campaigns including the Designated Driver campaign, Five a Day, Project Vitality, VERB and the Truth campaign. Although these initiatives cover social and health topics ranging from drunk driving to smoking to physical activity, they are all consistent with the principles of social marketing. Social marketers planning and implementing these efforts identified their audiences’ core values and successfully marketed the desired behavior change.

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Read More from Walking the Path:

1. Love Life and Live Up – HIV Campaigns Around the World
2. Five A Day Keeps the Doctor Away
3. Spit Out This Social Media Condom Campaign