A common critique of health communication campaigns is the campaign only increases awareness or knowledge. No one argues that knowledge is required for behavior change. But even campaign that are well funded and are planned and implemented extremely well, may not see any real change.
So, what is the solution to campaigns that do not result in change? For what I think might be the answer, check out the following video…
I like this campaign for two reasons:
- It is catchy and resonates. It makes me question why swear words are considered more unacceptable than the 30,000 children who have died in the past three months or 12 million men, women and children that are on the brink of dying from hunger.
- Although, the video did increase my knowledge about world hunger, it also did not leave me paralyzed with this new knowledge. It provided me with a concrete action step (sign a petition) that did not include my pocketbook.
Too often, we use campaigns merely to inform. We need to start using campaigns to help facilitate social change. We need to stop beating people over the head with knowledge and start providing action steps to empower the public to advocate for changes in policies which will ultimately improve their health.
I really like this: in 1 minute and 1 second A-list celebrities draw you into the problem, put it into perspective, and give you a 10 second Action Item. I am sure other public health campaigns could do the same…school lunch comes to mind after the events in Congress re: pizza as a vegetable this week!