Implementation of Public Health Campaign: Timeline/Milestones and Marketing Strategies

Introduction

The anti-smoking public health campaign will be conducted over a period of six months. The marketing strategies that will be used to reach out to potential targets, youths aged 18 to 29 are social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter). These platforms are the most effective for marketing the program among the target population because unlike conventional unidirectional media, such as TV ads, social media has been found to encourage the target audience to communicate actively and participate in discussions (Goodman, Wennerstrom, & Springgate, 2011). Additionally, social media is beneficial because it encourages it is quick, discreet, and cost-effective. Social media marketing is also the most appropriate for targeting the youth audience because most of the youths are online (Dunlop, Freeman, & Jones, 2016). Therefore, it is easier to reach them via online channels and positively influence their behavioral change (Dunlop et al., 2016). The need to use social media campaign is also informed by their popularity as a means of communication and a regular information source for the majority of the internet users (Jawad, Abass, Hariri, & Akl, 2015).

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Public Health Message and Justification Why It Would Lead To Health Promotion

Accurate and relevant information regarding the adverse health effects of tobacco smoking on health will be sought by carrying a literature review on the impacts of tobacco smoking on health. Findings of the literature review will be synthesized into "tobacco smoking facts." The effects of tobacco smoking on health will be compiled and used as public health messages. These messages will be shared to target audiences via social media platforms. The following public health messages will be posted on Twitter and Facebook: (i) cigarette smoking premature death, (ii) cigarette smoking leads to 90% of lung cancer deaths, (iii) tobacco smoking leads to 80% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease mortality and morbidity, (iv) tobacco smoking leads to increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. These messages act as negative appeals.

Public health messages with negative appeals have been found to be persuasive in eliciting behavioral health changes (Linley & Joseph, 2004; Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2005). One of the intentions of using negative appeals is to instill fear in the target audience thus making them quit the unwanted behaviors. According to Sweeney and Stephens (2013), negative appeal, such as fear appeal, is a persuasion strategy that threatens the audience with detrimental social, psychological, and physical consequence that is likely to take place if an individual participates in a specific behavior. Messages which elicit fear aimed at motivating individuals to increase attention to the message and to embrace the recommendations in the message (Sweeney & Stephens, 2013).

Three Ways Public Health Campaign May Be Adopted

One of the ways through which the health campaign may be adopted is through changes in the lifestyle of the target audience. These changes are predicted to lead to changes in health behaviours. Secondly, adoption of health campaign can occur through increased awareness of the negative impacts of tobacco smoking. Lastly, a public health campaign can be adopted through improved knowledge of the health impacts of tobacco smoking.

How to Incorporate Culturally Relevant and Sensitive Materials in Public Health Campaign

When conducting health communication, it is crucial that the message be culturally relevant and sensitive. In health communication, culturally sensitivity can be attained through audience segmentation. According to Kreuter and McClure (2004), audience segmentation refers to the process of apportioning large and heterogeneous populations into smaller subcategories having homogeneity. To ensure that health messages which resonate with different cultural groups are created, culture is used as the segmentation variable. The targeted communication is based on the needs of every cultural subgroup.

Legal and Ethical In Implementing My Campaign and How to Address

One of the ethical issues in the implementation of my proposed public health campaign is beneficence. Beneficence means the positive duty of researchers and medical professionals to act for the benefits of others. The issue of beneficence will be addressed by ensuring that the participants are not exposed to any risks and by ensuring that they benefit from the campaign. In addition to the ethical issues, legal issues like confidentiality are common in research. Confidentiality can address by using fictitious names instead of the real names of the participants.

Methods through Which the Effectiveness of Campaign can be evaluated

Evaluation of the effectiveness of public health campaign can be achieved through social media analytics and A/B testing. First, social media platforms allow public health campaigners to access data analytic tools (or real-time metrics) thus enabling them to monitor how their advertisements are performing. Secondly, A/B testing involves making a comparison of two versions of something to determine the one which performs better than the other (CDC, 2018).

Ways My Public Health Campaign will Promote Social Change

First, my anti-smoking public health campaign will promote positive behavioral change by creating awareness of the dangers or negative health effects of tobacco smoking. I believe that by informing the youth about the consequences of smoking, they will refrain from smoking habit. Secondly, the campaign will offer the youth knowledge, skills, and strategies needed to stop their tobacco smoking habits.

References

CDC (2018). Evaluating communication campaigns. Retrieved from https://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2018/04/evaluating-campaigns/

Dunlop, S., Freeman, B., & Jones, S. C. (2016). Marketing to youth in the digital age: The promotion of unhealthy products and health promoting behaviours on social media. Media and Communication, 4(3), 35-49.

Goodman, J., Wennerstrom, A., & Springgate, B. F. (2011). Participatory and social media to engage youth: from the Obama campaign to public health practice. Ethnicity & Disease, 21(3 Suppl 1), S1-94-99.

Jawad, M., Abass, J., Hariri, A., & Akl, E. A. (2015). Social Media Use for Public Health Campaigning in a Low Resource Setting: The Case of Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking [Research article]. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/562586

Kreuter, M. W., & McClure, S. M. (2004). The role of culture in health communication. Annu. Rev. Public Health, 25, 439-455.

Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2004). Positive psychology in practice. Wiley Publishers.

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2005). Applied social psychology: understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Sage Publishers.

Sweeney, K., & Stephens, S. (2013). The use of fear appeals to communicate public health messages. Irish Business Journal.