Instead of smoking prevention or nutritional campaigns organizing a health fair or news conference, they should invest their money to buy cinema screen advertisements on comedies and sports programs, for example. He also says that campaign planners should partner with national organizations, producers, writers, directors and actors to invest in product placement in movies, sitcoms and soap operas. Other target media include video games and entertainment-oriented programming on the Internet.
"This would be quite a change for media portrayals of health, because previous research shows entertainment programming depicting unhealthy eating as normal and desirable without linking it to negative consequences," he says.
"A great example of a health campaign that is breaking from tradition is the anti-drug campaign. Instead of news stories, they use commercials that are catchy, stylish and offer a sense of thrill that targets the adolescent at-risk group. Also, Population Communication International's Soap Summits provide entertainment and health professionals with information and creative ideas regarding the incorporation of health issues into entertainment programs."
The summit is an annual meeting that brings together individuals responsible for the creation of the content of American daytime serials with the goal of heightening awareness in the creative community about its role in shaping attitudes and behaviors.
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Contact: Amy Patterson-Neubert
apatterson@purdue.edu
765-494-9723
Purdue University
30-Sep-2004