The Lions Health campaign that I chose to analyze was uncoincidentally the one that hit me hardest during the Health awards on Saturday night, a campaign for the Burns & Smiles Foundation in Paris, France. The organization's goal is to end the stigma of fear often associated with burn victims, as well as providing such victims with support groups and outlets to eliminate feelings of isolation and loneliness.
The ad starts with a view of a man in his house at night, seemingly talking to himself excitedly. We soon learn that the man is a burn victim, evident by the many scars covering his face. It is Halloween, and after handing several children candy he dresses up and goes out for what is apparently the first time in a long time. He walks the streets, rides a ferris wheel, goes out drinking, and dances with a girl at a bar, all while laughing and smiling. Nobody questions his scars or disfigured face because they all assume it's just a costume. It is later explained that Halloween is the only day in which a burn victim feels they can be themselves, and then showcases the Burns & Smiles logo.
Personally, I believe that this ad was extremely effective. After watching it, I truly could not stop thinking about how different life is for a burn victim. Even now, a few days later, I still find myself thinking about the man with the top hat just trying to live a normal life for one day out of the year.
While the ad was effective for me, I do see several ways it could have been potentially improved. For starters, the ad didn't portray how a burn victim is treated on a normal day to day basis. I think that a huge opportunity to teach others how truly different life is for these people was missed by only showing the man on Halloween. I feel that the audience's comparison of the man on a normal day and on Halloween would have been even more effective.
In class, we discussed several models that have been developed to determine the effectiveness of health ads; in this case, I see the Transtheoretical Model falling in step with this particular PSA. According to the Transtheoretical Model, also called the stages of change theory, people go through several stages following a call to action before they actually begin to complete that action regularly.
The first stage of the Transtheoretical Model is Precontemplation, in which the person in question has not even begun to think of the call to action. This stage would be equivalent to the time period before being exposed to the Burns and Smiles advertisement.
The second stage is called Contemplation. In this stage, the person begins considering making a change to their preexisting routine, but is not yet committed to doing so. This would be equivalent to the period of time just after viewing the advertisement; for me, it was prolonged for the next few days, because my mind would continue to wander back to the touching commercial but I still knew too little about the organization to consider donating or raising awareness.
The next stage in this model is called Preparation, in which the call to action becomes so strong during the Contemplation stage that the person begins actively preparing to change their normal actions towards a particular event or subject. Personally, I believe that I am still in this stage. I have begun to educate myself on the mission of the Burns and Smiles organization and am still trying to figure out what exactly I can do to help, but have not actually made a conscious action quite yet.
The fourth stage is appropriately titled the Action stage, because it signifies the first time the person in question makes the action that the ad has called them to. In this case, it would signify the first time someone shares the ad on Facebook or even donates to the foundation, because they are fulfilling the exact actions that the advertisement is calling them to do.
The last stage is the Maintenance stage, which is simply the transition from a one time action to a repeated action. This could be as simple as continuing to raise awareness for the Burns and Smiles foundation through sharing articles and news on social media or as large as donating on a repetitive basis.
Overall, this campaign was an incredible use of creativity and storytelling to deliver a message and construct a call to action. Truthfully, before I attended the Lions Health seminars and viewed the work submitted for that particular category, I was not interested in the health industry in the slightest. To me, it was entirely pointless pharmaceutical commercials with side effects dominating eighty percent of the content. However, after seeing how inspirational and creative health advertisements and PSAs can truly be, I find myself more open to delving into that particular industry in the future.
In class, we discussed several models that have been developed to determine the effectiveness of health ads; in this case, I see the Transtheoretical Model falling in step with this particular PSA. According to the Transtheoretical Model, also called the stages of change theory, people go through several stages following a call to action before they actually begin to complete that action regularly.
The first stage of the Transtheoretical Model is Precontemplation, in which the person in question has not even begun to think of the call to action. This stage would be equivalent to the time period before being exposed to the Burns and Smiles advertisement.
The second stage is called Contemplation. In this stage, the person begins considering making a change to their preexisting routine, but is not yet committed to doing so. This would be equivalent to the period of time just after viewing the advertisement; for me, it was prolonged for the next few days, because my mind would continue to wander back to the touching commercial but I still knew too little about the organization to consider donating or raising awareness.
The next stage in this model is called Preparation, in which the call to action becomes so strong during the Contemplation stage that the person begins actively preparing to change their normal actions towards a particular event or subject. Personally, I believe that I am still in this stage. I have begun to educate myself on the mission of the Burns and Smiles organization and am still trying to figure out what exactly I can do to help, but have not actually made a conscious action quite yet.
The fourth stage is appropriately titled the Action stage, because it signifies the first time the person in question makes the action that the ad has called them to. In this case, it would signify the first time someone shares the ad on Facebook or even donates to the foundation, because they are fulfilling the exact actions that the advertisement is calling them to do.
The last stage is the Maintenance stage, which is simply the transition from a one time action to a repeated action. This could be as simple as continuing to raise awareness for the Burns and Smiles foundation through sharing articles and news on social media or as large as donating on a repetitive basis.
Overall, this campaign was an incredible use of creativity and storytelling to deliver a message and construct a call to action. Truthfully, before I attended the Lions Health seminars and viewed the work submitted for that particular category, I was not interested in the health industry in the slightest. To me, it was entirely pointless pharmaceutical commercials with side effects dominating eighty percent of the content. However, after seeing how inspirational and creative health advertisements and PSAs can truly be, I find myself more open to delving into that particular industry in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment