May 3rd, 2010 by Sarah Ragsdale
The Determinants of Health: G Dahlgren and M Whitehead, Policies and strategies to promote social equity in health, Institute of Futures Studies, Stockholm, 1991
One of the first concepts I remember studying in public health was the difference between illness and disease. As I understand the difference, disease is a biological concept with physical manifestations in the body. Illness, on the other hand, is the experience of being sick.
Why does this matter? Health is not simply the absence of disease as there are many factors that contribute to overall health and wellbeing. Understanding the difference between disease and illness impacts the way we market behavior change. An interesting example, related to AIDS patients, is discussed in The Illness Narratives . The author focuses on how AIDS patients were less concerned with their physical T-cell count and premature death than they were with the personal and social consequences of their disease.
The author shares the intimate story of one man living with AIDS. The man was devastated by the fact that he could no longer take road trips for fear of diarrhea while driving. His devastation resulted from the perceived lack of independence not the fact that his prognosis was fatal.
We must remember that people do not value health universally. But people do have some universal values such as freedom, independence and control. If we can frame health where the absence of disease is freedom (not just good health) then we will have an easier time selling our product.
Let’s work together as marketing and public health professions to sell a product to the public they actually want.
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Posted in Collaboration, Health Communications, Health Marketing, Social Marketing | 3 Comments »
Apr 27th, 2010 by Fard Johnmar
Update: We’ve awarded all ten prizes & 500+ people asked Supercool Agency to lose the cig. See below for more on the prizes. Click here for a full listing of those who joined this twitter-based anti-tobacco movement.
If you’ve been following the Path of the Blue Eye Project over the past year, you know that we are big fans of 
superheroes. After all, we published a comic featuring a dimension hopping health marketing expert named Specto Laurus. So, you know that we love creativity and innovation — especially if it’s animated.
However, we’re also in the business of helping people engage in healthier behaviors and smoking is certainly not healthy (as a former smoker, I know this from personal experience). This is why people like my friend and colleague Nedra Weinreich have been working with the entertainment industry to snuff out images of smoking in TV, films, advertisements and other media. (Of course period pieces like the popular show “Mad Men” are an exception.) The plan is to reduce smoking by limiting our exposure to imagery depicting smoking as a “cool” behavior.
So, imagine my surprise when I learned that Supercool, a digital creative agency, had created a logo/mascot featuring a Superman-like character with a cigarette in his mouth and a cloud of smoke around his ears. Is the agency saying that it’s super cool to smoke?
One person, Connecticut-based actor & instructional technologist Gary Ploski (@GaryPloski), does not think Supercool’s smoking superhero is a good idea. He’s launched an effort to get the company to snuff out its smoking mascot and replace it with a more heart healthy image. Here’s the catch, the company won’t make a move unless it receives 500 tweets using the hashtag #LoseTheCig.
Because the Path of the Blue Eye Project is all about supporting and promoting healthy behaviors, I’ve decided to lend the Project’s support to Ploski’s effort. Here’s the deal:
- If you’d like Supercool’s smoking hero to go the way of the dodo, please RT the following:
- “@SupercoolAgency, @blueeyepath and friends ask you to #LoseTheCig + ditch the smoking superhero”
- OR some variation of “@SupercoolAgency, #losethecig”
- We need to generate 300 178 90 more tweets to convince Supercool to take action
- Here’s your incentive: We’re giving away 10 9 6 2 special secret prizes to 10 9 6 2 random people who join our Twitter cause
- We gave 1 secret prize to @chamberlainwill on April 27; We made a $25 donation on his behalf to the American Cancer Society, see proof of his donation here [PDF]
- We announced 3 secret prize winners on May 12 to (they opted to have their prizes donated to the American Heart Association and American Lung Association, see proof of these donations here [PDF] @ChrissyPeters90 @lozzola @FightForAirNY
- We announced 4 secret prize winners on May 14 to @TobaccoFreeKids, @CYANsocialmedia, @scoutout, @adincmiller;
- We made a $25 donation to Tobacco Free Kids on May 14 see proof of this donation here [PDF]
- @CYANsocialmedia asked that their prize be donated to Tobacco Free Kids; see proof of this donation here [PDF]
- @scoutout and @adincmiller opted to give their prize to the 500th unique “@Supercoolagency #losethecig” tweet
- @KLajeunesse was the 500th person to tweet @Supercoolagency #losethecig. She donated her $50 donation to the Albany Vegetarian Network; see proof of this donation here [PDF]
- We announced the final 2 secret prize winners on May 19 to @sevinfo, @Yoga_Glow
- @sevinfo asked that her prize be donated to Half the Sky, which supports China’s orphaned children. See proof of this donation here [PDF]
Let’s get started!
Join us at unNiched 2010, a unique collaborative online and offline boot camp for health marketing communications professionals. Learn more by clicking here.
Posted in Health Communications, Health Marketing, On Collaboration | 65 Comments »
Apr 23rd, 2010 by Fard Johnmar
This post is part of an ongoing series called “Ask Living the Path.” With more than 1,000 blog posts, news 
articles, data summaries, strategy guides and case studies, our knowledge-based online community, Living the Path, is packed with content that will help you stay informed. In this series we demonstrate how the site can help you answer common strategic and tactical questions. Those using Living the Path for this purpose can refer to the wiki and the social news site, the NewsHub.
When it comes to Hispanics, African-Americans and digital technologies, it’s hard to break down old myths. Myth number one is that people in these groups are not using online technologies or social media in great numbers. Fortunately, we have lots of great data looking at how these groups are using online technologies to inform us about the true state of affairs.
Continue Reading »
Join us at unNiched 2010, a unique collaborative online and offline boot camp for health marketing communications professionals. Learn more by clicking here.
Posted in Ask Living the Path, Data First | 3 Comments »
Apr 14th, 2010 by Fard Johnmar
Over the next few months, I will be publishing a new series focusing on the next stage of the Internet and what it means for those of us involved in communicating about health and 
wellness. Although the daily (and hourly) march of technological progress is difficult to keep up with, it is important to take time to think ahead and anticipate where the Web is going. Why is this important? Well, thinking about the future helps us stay ahead of the curve rather than behind it. It also prepares us (i.e., health marketing communications professionals) to leverage new channels and ways of consuming and thinking about content that will emerge over the next three to five years.
The framework for this series is based on a number of conclusions I have made about where the Web is going based on extensive analysis of current data on Internet trends, consumer behavior, media consumption habits and other information sources. It is also shaped by Jonathan Zittrain’s excellent book, “The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It.” Following is an overview of some of my current thinking on the future of the Web:
- Although the 1990s and 2000s were shaped by the “wisdom of the crowd,” the 2010s will be marked by the “wisdom of the [distributed] expert.” That is, the (few) people and organizations dedicated to creating and curating online information will have great influence on the vast majority of people who are less interested in creating content than consuming it.
- The mobile Web will help to ease traditional problems we have faced in terms of access to digital technologies. However, as illustrated by the rise of the iPad, iPhone and other mobile devices, the “PC” of the future may be:
- Safer and more controlled: People may move toward preferring computing devices that are more akin to what Zittrain calls tethered appliances than traditional PCs which offer great flexibility, but are more vulnerable to attack and corruption
- Top down rather than bottom up: The rise of the application through which content is piped to the masses rather than “found” via active use of search engines may help revitalize industries that have not done well well over the past few years (major media companies, etc.)
- Less private: Mobile devices (via GPS location and other tools) are much easier to track and monitor than PCs and online traffic. What are the implications for those organizations seeking to leverage the mobile Web for health-related applications?
- Diversity in location, language and ethnicity will be the norm, not the exception: China has more Internet users than the U.S., Hispanics and African Americans are highly likely to be early rather than late adopters of technological tools — especially those accessible via mobile. These demographic and geographic realities will force health communicators to broaden their thinking and perspectives in order to effectively persuade and inform the public.
Continue Reading »
Join us at unNiched 2010, a unique collaborative online and offline boot camp for health marketing communications professionals. Learn more by clicking here.
Posted in Mobile, Technology, The Future Web | 1 Comment »
community has helped us find and share fantastic content strongly (or tangentially) related to the health marketing communications field. We’ve also been storing much of this content on our growing knowledge community, Living the Path.
