One concept that has really caught my attention in class recently, is the idea of social marketing for health communication. No matter where one is from, or what beliefs one holds, it is vital that the media acknowledges and respects this. If the media hopes to impact their target audience, and make a mark in health for the public, they need to research their audience members. For example, if a media campaign's audience members are from an area that are generally of a certain religion that does not accept birth control practices, those involved with the media campaign need to be aware of this.
As we were shown in class, not everyone involved in media campaigns are familiar with their target audience, and or do not respect the values of their target audience. One example was a media campaign targeted towards teenage boys. In the ad, the boys were encouraged to practice abstinence. However, this ad was played for an audience in an area that had a high rate of teen pregnancy, therefore this ad did not consider or care about the values or practices of their target audience. Hence, this may easily defeat the purpose of this ad campaign, wasting time, money, and may even in some cases show disrespect towards the audience that the ad is geared towards.
All in all, it is extremely important that we include the ideals of our audience when we design a campaign. If we do not think about the practices and beliefs of our audiences, especially concerning health as in the example I addressed, our efforts are worthless. If we expect change, we must include those who are involved. We cannot step into people's lives for a period of time, and expect to have them react positively, and follow practices that do not align with their ways of life.
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