Advancing Effective Obesity Communications Proceedings of a Workshop (2020) / Chapter Skim
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2 Overview of Communications and the Communications Environment
2 Overview of Communications and the Communications Environment
Pages 5-18
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• Key principles of strategic communication campaigns are to (1) precisely define an audience, identify its values, and rec ognize its barriers to healthy lifestyles; (2)
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Two speaker presentations were followed by a panel discussion that included viewpoints from two additional experts. A COMMUNICATIONS AGENCY PERSPECTIVE Adelaide Feuer, executive vice president at Edelman, set the stage by sharing foundational communications concepts based on her experience in a communications, marketing, and public relations agency.
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More recently, she added, occurrences of fake news and privacy concerns have contributed to decreased trust in search engines and social media platforms compared with traditional media sources, such as journalists, according to Edelman's survey (Edelman, 2018)
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population: "In general, when forming an opinion of a company, if you heard information about a company from each person, how credible would the information be -- extremely credible, very credible, somewhat credible, or not credible at all." SOURCES: Presented by Adelaide Feuer, September 16, 2019. Copyright 2019.
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In closing, Feuer emphasized that simplicity of messages is key, acknowledging that much planning goes into crafting simple yet effective messages. THE COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION AND EQUITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR OBESITY-RELATED COMMUNICATIONS Kasisomayajula "Vish" Viswanath, Lee Kum Kee Professor of Health Communication in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H.
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Viswanath shared the example of a weight-loss contest winner's plan to reduce obesity in her hometown, explaining that news coverage of the story failed to mention that she had received extensive professional and social support in her weight-loss journey. Such support would not be available to the town's participants, he pointed out, which he said was an important detail that helps provide the full picture.
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PANEL DISCUSSION A panel discussion following the presentations by Feuer and Viswanath opened with remarks from Suzi Gates, communication team lead in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, and Rebecca Puhl, professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Connecticut and deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
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Puhl summarized findings from her team's research on the role of stigma in obesity communications. She reported that, according to several national experimental studies, when the public is exposed to stigmatizing messages in public health campaigns targeting obesity, the result is less motiation, lower intent, and less self-confidence to change health v behaviors.
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However, oversimplification at the level of mass communications and campaigns is likely not going to be very effective, she asserted, alluding to Gates's point about defining target audiences precisely and tailoring messages accordingly. Viswanath maintained that people are quite thoughtful, recounting focus groups with women of lower SES who demonstrated savvy in navigating trade-offs related to challenges of paying monthly bills.
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DISCUSSION Following the panel discussion, panelists addressed participants' questions about normalizing unhealthy weight, differences between communication and information campaigns, avoiding unintended consequences of messages, and framing obesity as a disease.
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Feuer and Gates reiterated the importance of choosing words and phrases that resonate with specific audiences, noting that broader health topics may be of greater interest than obesity to certain groups. Avoiding Unintended Consequences of Messages A participant observed that the best messaging approach for one population may be counterproductive for another population, and wondered how to navigate those situations and avoid unintended consequences in a complex messaging environment with an increasingly diverse population.
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In the same vein, he called for communication campaigns to be conducted with diverse audiences. Framing Obesity as a Disease Referencing the American Medical Association's (AMA's)
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She identified three key audiences for communications of obesity solutions: the broader publics; decision makers such as teachers, parents, community leaders, and health professionals; and policy makers. She explained that session 2 would explore the complexity of communicating obesity solutions and address where to start with those three audiences, while sessions 3 and 4 would turn to practical approaches for communicating with impact, including model successes, lessons learned, gaps, and evaluation metrics; unique challenges for different audiences; and the refinement of objectives and development of high-impact messages.
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