Raising public health awareness about any number of issues including the dangers of smoking, distracted driving and obesity and the importance of things such as seat belt use and exercise is an important part of the mission of most public health agencies. However, there are a number of challenges involved in this task. Agencies must consider how to most effectively reach and persuade the relevant population.
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Know the Audience
The first step is to identify the audience. Depending on who the campaign is primarily trying to reach, there may be two sets of audiences, one that influences another. For example, a campaign that is trying to warn teens about the dangers of texting and driving might target both the teenagers and their parents. The hope is that the parents will be able to influence their children’s behavior in addition to the influence of the part of the campaign that is aimed at the teens.
Shape the Message
Once the audience has been identified, it is important to choose a message that they will respond to. Even if health is the ultimate goal, an appeal on the basis of health may not always work. For example, Cancer Research UK ran an award-winning public health campaign that focused on warning teenage girls about the dangers of tanning beds. The people who ran the campaign were aware that this audience was unlikely to respond to a message about their health. Instead, the campaign focused on how using the tanning beds affected the way they would look in the future.
Choose the Right Platform
There are a huge number of platforms that an agency can choose from to get the message across, and again, this will require looking at the audience and deciding how best to reach them. Billboards, TV ads, Twitter, and videos with viral potential are just a few examples of the types of media a campaign might use.
Success Stories
Seat belt use is one habit that has become widespread thanks to public health awareness campaigns. Reducing the incidence of drinking and driving is another. Public health campaigns also helped raise people’s awareness about the dangers of smoking. However, according to a piece in The Lancet Neurology, public awareness campaigns need to be tracked and scrutinized more closely to find out what approaches lead to changes in behavior. One element The Lancet Neurology identifies as needing to be addressed is how often a campaign should be run. On the one hand, more exposure could mean reaching more people, but on the other hand, overexposure could lead to people starting to ignore the message. Another element to consider is whether fundraising and awareness should go hand in hand or be separated.
Public health agencies must disseminate science-based information to the public in a way that is easily understandable to people without a science background and make specific recommendations relating to the information that will improve their health. All of this must be done in a persuasive way. For people interested in both communication and health, a career that involves raising public health awareness is bound to be both challenging and rewarding.
