For this week, please review either the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction article or the Badvertisement article, both of which can be found on Blackboard.
Extra Credit Contact Info:
If you have signed up to take one of the acceptable BATS classes (dreamweaver, photoshop, anything media related) please turn in some type of proof to Kristen. Her email is S627.kristen@gmail.com
If you are going to the APHA conference, you can type up a report about the lecture/presentation you attended. Please turn these reports in to Dominique. Her email is dmh0812@gmail.com. You can also arrange to give a presentation to the class about your experience, but you will need to speak with Dr. Mulvihill about this, as class time is limited.
You can also sign up for Delicious, the social bookmarking website. Please contact Miriah for more infomation about this process. Her email is myrtle1980@yahoo.com
If you are going to resubmit your midterm question #36, please make sure to list the specific challenges for each group listed on the report and come up with a solution for each challenge. These are due in class on November 3rd! Turn a hard copy in to Martha. You can email her with questions at ms.marthasolorzano@gmail.com
I will be giving you more information about writing an article for the two newsletters when we meet in class again, so please hold off on this.
Phew! Thanks.
**Remember, there is NO CLASS this Monday!!**
30 comments:
I really like the tobacco ads displayed on the Badvertisement website. They represent a very creative way of reducing the social appeal of tobacco products by displaying the risks associated with their use juxtaposed over the original ads.
Regarding mindfulness and the Kabat-Zinn video, I really appreciate the value of mindfulness and think that in today’s society these are lessons that are much needed. As a clinical psychologist in training, I am excited about how much the mindfulness training has added to my education. Specifically, I think that the mindfulness teachings compliment mainstream psychological interventions (e.g., Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) quite nicely and can be particularly useful when working with the chronically ill, depressed, and anxious. Moreover, I think anyone, sick or not, can benefit tremendously from the teachings.
I thought these adds were great! I wish that they were more available to the public in some way (i.e. magazine, newspapers, etc)....I feel that they could really make an impact on young people or short term smokers--the long term smoker would be a much harder audience. The depictions are very creative as well.
I decided to blog on the mindfulness topic:
In watching the Mindfulness Meditation with Jon Kabat-Zin I found his talk very engaging and practicing meditation fruitful. I particularly enjoyed his reference to the mind being like the ocean, that may be turbulent on the surface but going down 20-30 ft it is calm. He really normalized the difficulties of calming the mind and enhanced motivation to befriend the mind and maintain awareness during every moment. Further, showing up in your own body I think is a central component to awareness and is really applicable to our everyday experience, such as, being in class physically but not mentally. It truly is a way of existence and for those who are introducing mindfulness as an intervention for chronic pain or stress-reduction, it is evident that the teacher must also practice. On the whole the video/seminar was very inspiring and has had a maintained effect on my awareness today.
Babvertisments:
I found the ideas and theories of badvertising to be quite interesting and effective. Although the advertiser's points are rather dramatic (yet true), they are only doing it to combat the already misleading ads available to the public.
I found the ads to be colorful, interesting and adding a sense of fear to the viewer. Because of the pro's and con's related to using fear tactics, I feel these ads need to be very selective in who sees it.
A downfall to Badvertisements is the only topic being used is smoking. There are so many other serious conditions that may benefit from using this tactic, why aren't they?
BADvertisements:
I think this form of counter-advertising is a great way bring light into what the tobacco companies are really doing to peoples health. The not so glamorous realities of smoking is depicted...which is a great way put things in perspective for the person who is exposed to these ads.I think this is a great idea..as long as the scare tactics of the graphics are kept to a minimum how however, because research has shown that too much fear arousal may not necessarily be the best way to get people to to change their behavior.
In the mindfulness video, I like how he said that in science, it's not what you know, its what you don't know.The idea of non-doing, and just being... was made very simple and clear cut. I am very much familiar with meditation, and mindfullness growing up as a buddhist. And I appreciate the teachings of awaresness and midfulness as an adult now more than ever!Just like he said, meditation really is an act of sanity!
The Badvertisement campaign seems like an interesting approach to teaching people about the truth. Although many people may be aware that cigarette smoking is harmful to their health, they might not understand the extent of its damage. By creating imagery that reflects the negative outcomes of smoking, it might help people make the connection between smoking and their health.
Some of the badvertisements sent pretty deep messages or required a little more thinking in order to get the message or understand the point they were trying to make which could be a negative aspect of the campaign; they want people to see the reality and make choices based on that, but if people don’t even understand the message then it won’t have the desired effect.
Overall I like the idea of exposing the truth and think that people should be informed of the possible outcomes of smoking and that this method might bring the reality a little closer to home. When I traveled in South America the actual cigarette packages had truth advertisements on them to warn people of their hazards and not just the small print but actual pictures and images which I thought was great and seems to be a lot like what badvertisements is doing.
I think these ads are GREAT! Not only are they funny but very honest and hard-hitting. It makes complete sense to create these ads because what they said it correct: fight fire with fire! I especially love the one with the coffin as the "crush-proof" box! It offers a real perspective on tobacco that will hopefully open many people's eyes.
Can we use the ideas of BADvertisements for other issues as well?!
I also choose to blog on Dr. Kabat-Zinn's Youtube video:
I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s video. There were so many ‘a-ha’ moments and thought provoking ideas. The following are a few of the key ideas that stood out in my mind.
Showing up for life ~ in your body and mind. Real meditation is your life, through sensing, thinking, and awareness; how you carry yourself in each moment. Meditation to remind you to rebody yourself to learn and remember how to rest in awareness. Being is somewhat anti-American because our society prioritizes the go getters the to-do lists and the accomplishments. Non-doing and being are foreign concepts. This has led to the majority of us being out of touch with who is doing the doing…ourselves. We are more caught up in the doing than being. We now have a culture of the never ending work day. We have a stone-age mind caught in the perils of a digital world. We need to self-educate to cope in this world. Meditation, awareness, uniting the body and mind are ways in which we can cope and rebalance ourselves. Meditation can be movement as I list in my blog…Spiragenics. We all need tuning to ourselves and to others to rebalance the world, our health, and our happiness.
One of his most profound statements I found was “recognition is deeper than intimacy.” I see this with the kids and staff I work with. Recognize their being, their individuality is a more effective way to get their buy-in and connection than any other reward, threat, reinforcer.
Another key idea Dr. Kabat-Zinn discussed was that usually there are signs and symptoms that we can see, if we are aware. If we do not pay attention the body or the world will up the ante to get us to come to our senses. We are not what we think, how liberating to know we can evolve through being aware and connecting with others. A great practice I believe health practitioners of all realms should incorporate into their planning and practice. We need to attend to our lives so we can better attend to the lives and health of others. Feast on your life.
I think these ads are great and they should be more widely disseminated to the public! While some are a little over-the-top, others really do portray a clear message of the risks associated with smoking. I think other campaigns should consider using this strategy too to send strong messages about the truths of certain harmful behaviors.
I wonder if the BADvertising is connected to the truth campaign. That about smokeless tobacco is disgusting. I don't think ones like that work because people don't think it is a reality and the fear level is too high. I think what has worked way better than posters is simply commercials. I think when people started seeing these kinds of concepts being turned upside down on television these ideas suffused through society. I think the whole make your own poster and signs idea is nice but how many people are really going to do it?
I too agree with most of the comments here.. The Badvertisements is a great concept. I really wish to see more of these.. I still don't think that these ads are out there in the real world. They should be out more and more publicity is needed. Although some of the ads i feel are over the top i feel most of the ads are pretty good in conveying the message. Also i feel that these ads may help in preventing people to start smoking, i don't think these ads might have an effect on chain smokers.
the badvertisements were great! I really liked seeing the before and after photos, especially the one listed as "new crush-proof box." A lot of the time people are absorbing the messages of the visual media without, perhaps, knowing it so this is a great way to decode the messages to reality of the outcome. it would be great if these actually appeared side by side with tobacco advertisements
I decided to blog on badadvertising which I found very interesting. I like the concept of making a dishonest picture into a honest one. This reminds me of my time in Thailand. When I studied abroad in Thailand, the tobacco box explicitly had a man in a hospital bed with a breathing kit. The box explained that if a person smokes this; this is what happens to smokers. The pictures were actual pictures of people. Another picture of a pair of smoking lungs was very vivid. This also brings in another point that Thailand people did for drunk driving. The cars that were actually involved in a drunk driving accident were displayed at specific traffic lights. The sign would explain that this car crash was due to drunk driving. These advertisements were scary and it made me think twice.
Looking at the Badvertisements I think that it is an interesting an idea and I’m sure when it was first initiated was quite innovative. However, as the website says media tactics with tobacco have changed and I think that campaigns like Truth.com are much more effective at creating a media literacy campaign then these Badvertisements in preventing teen smoking. I think that it would be awesome to see some of the badvertising tactics on different topics, like magazine advertisements that perpetuate un-realistic body images to teen girls.
The BadAdvertising website was interesting. I liked the art, and I think the design had a pull that would attract a young audience, such as, high school students. The ads are kind of edgy and I think that can be attractive to that age group. But at the same time, I noticed the link of vocabulary terms for smoking/or smokers. While I think many of the terms are funny and could work well, I think they should be used with caution. My only concern might be backlash, for instance, if someone's 90 year old grandmother saw an ad that said she was a murderer for smoking and creating second hand smoke , those words may be too harsh. Also, because health and death often seem to be irrelevant to teenagers, then, I'm not sure if seeing these ads which mainly had that focus would work for them. I'd be interested to see a study done on the effectiveness of these ads among high school students.
Just like most of my classmates I also liked the tobacco ads. They are colorful, realistic, and great attention grabbers which can definitely shift someone’s mode from heuristic to systematic. They are very powerful and it does not require much thinking to understand the underlying message. Just like the title of the website says “A Picture is worth a thousand lives”.
I would like to see more ads that depict women and teenagers rather than white middle age men. Ads could have a much more powerful effect on individuals and reach a wider population.
I really enjoyed looking at the Badvertising website. This is a great way of using communication to promote for healthier behaviors. I think it is very efficient way to get through the teenage population especially. It is a very straight forth way to expose the truth about the tobacco industry. I love the way the website, overall, was constructed. It has so many links and resources to get as much information as possible. The site has a gallery, products for sale, and even a blog portion coming soon. The creators have done such a good job in making the site appealing. This website has given me many ideas on things to put on my personal blog. I think it's a great idea if more websites, such as this one, were to be made on many other health topics. Tobacco campaigns using this strategy, counter-advertising, have been very effective in exposing the truth on tobacco and it's effects. Loved it!
I really liked the badvertisement website. The ads were very attetion-grabbing and definitely made a point. Some were a little over the top and harsh though. For istance, the ad with the picture of a person's mouth with cancer in a can of snuff. Those types of images do grab people's attetion, however they can also turn people off and make them ignore the ads and what they are trying to get across. There is a thin line between making an impact and taking it too far.
I also, besides the ads, looked at the other parts of the website. There was a section that told peoples' stories that was very impactful. Real people who never thought it could happen to them telling their story so other's don't make the same mistakes they did. I overal really liked the site and thik there should be more truth advertisements, we just have to make sure we make an impact without taking it too far.
Badvertisements: I thought that the website was very interesting. As the website mentioned though, the tobacco industry now find more discrete ways to advertise smoking to circumvent the law. Now there are technological advertisements that are shown on websites and throughout the internet, which would be almost impossible to turn into a badvertisement, unless you printed them. Although, I think the concept is a great idea and takes a grass roots approach to combating the tobacco industry. It could be done by teenagers or adolescents who are targeted by these ads.
I think the ideas of badvertising was really interesting and most likely effective. Even though the ad was pretty dramatic, it could be because to go aganist other ads that are misleading already and available to the public. They grabed my attention with the colors and also looked interesting. They also brought out an emotion of fear, which is a good sign of a excellent campgain ad. The only thing that I was disappointed with is that the ads only brought up the issue of smoking. What about other issues? It would have been nice to see how they would ad other issues. And learned of it too.
I agree with my peers on the range of creativity in the BadAdvertising website. I found it to be quite cool that the concept of smoking could be used in such a compelling way. I think the various ads should be used more in mainstream media, because there are truly serious consequences to consuming carcinogens.
The BADvertisements show how advertising has become more subtle and deceptive. Today, product ads are integrated into television programs since the advent of Tivo has made commercials nearly obsolete.
Anti-tobacco campaigns like the Truth campaign are working to combat tobacco use in digital media just like the BADvertisements are working in printed media.
These BADvertisements need to be published in the same venues that tobacco sponsors are using. This way the target audience will be made aware of the how deceptive tobacco advertising truly is.
I think the advertisements were great! I certainly appreciated the honesty and the truthfulness in the ads. I would love to see such attention grabbing ads showed more often and in more places. Using the badvertisments for topics other than smoking would be a great idea too.
When I saw the mindfulness video, it actually reminded me about the value of religion and it’s impact on one’s health and well being. It reminded me of how Muslims where taught to use praying, meditation, and reading the Quran as a way to relieve woes and cure illnesses. I’d say that Dr. Kabat-Zinn is on to something :)
These adds were great! I think sometimes you have to have a sense of humor for this type of advertising but I also think we need to be scared into making changes so these adds do that. They remind me of a campaign in Brazil on smoking. On every pack of cigarettes sold in Brazil there is a image of a person that has been damaged by smoking including even a dead fetus in a jar. Yeah same thing super scary and even more so when you see it everytime you grab a cig. Thats the only problem with the Badvertisements, who seems them if they don't go to website? Also in this weeks Newsweek magazine there is an article on bogus scientific findings and it shows old cigarette adds and talks about some of the MDs that promoted them which were even featured tauting cigs in the adds.
BADvertising is a really interesting approach to health communication. I think it's important to counter the information and appeal that tobacco companies offer to get people to smoke. However, I think it's important to consider the reaction of the audience. Attaching such strong images as death could hinder the effectiveness of the message. As I learned in PH661, the message could be so strong that the viewer may not want to process the information and avoid the message altogether. So, it's important for health communicators to keep in mind how the audience will react to such strong messages.
I believe mindfulness has potential to be a powerful technique for behavior change. As I learned in PH667 last semester, utilizing such techniques helped me to focus on personal goals and overcome difficult barriers. The use of metaphors, guided imagery, and breathing techniques alleviated a lot of the stresses of changing difficult behaviors.
BADvertising is a genius way to combat some of the harmful and misleading consequences that arise from tobacco company ads. Such ads rely on a heuristic framework of their audience who might be drawn into the ‘coolness’ of the cowboy image smoking a cigarette, or attractiveness or thinness of a female smoking. In a similar but much more compelling and effective way, BADvertisements also use heuristic cues to get the attention of viewers by juxtaposing such attractive ads with more gruesome images such as a coffin. In this way, I think the ads would likely be effective in getting maximum attention using heuristic cues and then switching the audience over to a systematic way of thinking since they need to then make sense of the paradoxical images.
I think this type of advertising should be used for a variety of companies that use images of attractiveness, wealth, or sex to sell a product. For example, advertisements “designer” clothing companies that use stick-thin models could include images portraying the realities of anorexia. McDonald’s food advertisements… well no doubt we could all have a field day with that one… including images that portray the real ‘ingredients’ of the food and the consequences it has with regular consumption.
I really enjoyed the tobacco ads on the Badvertisement site. These ads are great but I do not see them anywhere. We need more ads that depict the realities of what happens when one chooses to smoke. These ads are really clever and are appealing.
However, I am concern that these ads may not be suited for everyones taste because as we learned in PH 661, ads that are too scary or out there may deter the audience from the ad and its message. Overall, these ads are great and will make an impact on teens who decide to smoke.
I am really enjoying the links we have been provided with in this course. I am exploring new information that will prove useful in my future work.
For example, the BADvertising site presented a very interesting and creative way to make quite powerful statements. "BADvertising is a special way of seeing; a way of thinking" sums up the images quite well. The ads are truthful...and although they may induce fear in some, their illustrations are a reality. BADvertisements allow for certain messages to be conveyed much more effectively than would otherwise--like regarding the health hazards and consequences of smoking.
Overall, I felt this was a neat way to get people thinking about what messages are important to covey and how it might be most effective to do so.
As for the Mindfulness video, I was quite intrigued with some of the points made. I agree that things in your life are seen more clearly when your stress level is reduced. It’s very important to try to worry less about those things you can’t control and focus on what you can. Meditation can provide you with the opportunity to re-align yourself and channel the positive energy needed to continue to grow.
"no deception is currently more blatant than that of the tobacco industry"...This quote made me realize how the tobacco industry is constantly bombarding our minds with false advertisements & yet we fall for them all the time (except me of course) =). While looking through the Badvertisements website I found many advertisements that we really should display to the public. It is sad how the tobacco industry is allowed to do so much harm and not feel any remorse towards those who have suffered deadly consequences due to their misleading and unfair advertisements. I strongly believe that by demonstrating tobaccos true effects we can come a long way, however, is anyone really willing to put forth that much effort? (considering no one has till this day).
On the other hand, the mindfulness video was very helpful to me considering I am one of those people who falls asleep while attempting to meditate. This time around I was actually able to concentrate and really be in touch with myself. After Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn mentioned the very important component of MOTIVATION, I realized that was the reason why I was able to stay awake on my chair. I guess I just really needed that time to myself & he is right you really do not need to make time for it...."it's infinitely available no matter what you are doing".
I found some of the ads to be somewhat disturbing but effective. I think you have to pull out all the stops to counteract the advertising that is out now. It can be very convincing so you definitely need a strong counter attack to get the true message out. We know how addictive these cigarettes can be so it will take something very strong to have any type of effect if any at all but I definitely think this is the right direction in trying to get people to stop smoking or even start.
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