I was a little bit discouraged when a classmate remarked that graphic anti-smoking ads simply infuriate her. She highly doubted their effectiveness in getting people to quit smoking. I would just like to report that extensive research has shown that graphic ads, in fact, do have a noticeable effect on quitting. As this article points out, although these ads are controversial, the CDC has confirmed that they work. Though, this success could have as much to do with the sheer number of ads (money being spent) and exposure these ads get as it does with the actual graphic content. If you just wanna watch the video:
I have found further support for the effectiveness of graphic ads in a public health paper that confirmed the strength of fear appeals. The link I provided will take you to the abstract, but if you would like to read the full-text, just look up the paper from that link in the USC libraries search section. The paper, titled "Lessons Learned from Public Health Mass Media Campaigns: Marketing Health in a Crowded Media World," also discussed the framing of messages. Framing, as discussed here, can take the form of gain-framed or loss-framed. Gain-framed messages portray the benefits of a particular scenario, while loss-framed messages depict costs. Results from various studies have concluded that gain-framed messages promote prevention more effectively, while loss-framed messages promote early-detection. This makes sense in light of the video above. By showing the costs of smoking, many are encouraged to seek "early detection" and the urge to quit increases. I thought this would be interesting in relation to obesity because the framing could vary depending on the target audience. To emotionally appeal to adults whose lifestyles are largely unchanging, perhaps a loss-framed message that depicts the adverse effects of obesity on their children would be helpful. For impressionable children, perhaps a gain-framed message that depicts the positive effects of healthy eating habits would discourage bad ones from forming. Anyway, this is the gist of what I discussed in this part of my paper for those interested.
I would also like to take a moment to address a comment left on an earlier post. For all of the people out there interested in everything to do with politics and food, check out this awesome blog! FoodPolitics has a really good health-ranking among blogs, according to Technorati. Anyway, the post I linked echoes my research and suspicions that politicians DO NOT CARE about children's nutritional health if it conflicts with their political agendas. Just some food for thought for you, as many commenters after my presentation asked about economic effects of my food research (which I eventually considered beyond the purview of my paper).
And now, after ALL that blabbering: SENSA. I'll start off by saying that because there are no studies about Sensa published in any peer-reviewed medical journals, you are better off staying away from it. However, Sensa's creator, Alan Hirsch, claims that it enhances the sensory components (taste and smell) of food. By heightening these senses, it takes less of the food to initiate what sensory-specific satiety, which I discussed last blog post. As I mentioned there, the effects of this phenomenon in dieting are controversial. So, in summary, sprinkling little synthesized food crystals into your food is supposed to make you think you're full. I wish I could talk about this more, but there simply is not enough (or any) scientific data I could find to review.
Anyway, I hope my blog has provided you with some unique points of view on obesity. To show you all that I am not a food-hating, calorie-counting, judgmental person, here are my food highlights from 2012: pizza with feta, peppers, and onions, butterflied roast chicken with mustard-thyme butter, homemade oreos, chocolate croissants, and a crepe cake. Oh, how I'm looking forward to the holidays!
-Graham
Hi Graham. Very interesting topic as your research topic correlates to my research topic of food deserts. You have mentioned Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign in one of your blog posts as this is one way the federal government is trying to reform/create new policy initiatives in hopes of fostering a "healthy" generation. However, the problem such as food deserts prevail in low-income areas such as South Los Angeles. I strongly believe that there is a way to solve food related policy issues which is through building strong relationships with family and networks, creating a new framework, and through the active participation of the individual voice.
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