In a recent note, I commented on the television viewing habits of young adult males and suggested some ways in which public health messages could be developed in order to reach them more effectively (see: “The Mind of the Young Adult Male and On-Line Health Education) A reader of this blog, Ajit Ailes, responded with the following comment:
These males are also in the earliest stages of accepting mortality. If we look at Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's staging of the acceptance of dying in terminal patients, these young men are in the stage of denial. They are generally healthy and feel immortal. So why would they worry about health care? Maybe the serious issues of the day could be woven into a video game or cartoon as part of the plot rather than as a separate program. A good example of this is "The Simpsons" cartoon series which has discussed some very serious philosophical issues that the "real" programs wont touch. Take a look at this series if you haven't already seen it. Another possibility - some decades ago, there were always informational short films/features shown before the main movie. Maybe we should start doing the same thing again, addressing serious issues. This guarantees a captive audience that might be receptive to serious, but concise, discussions of the issues.
I believe that the idea of catching the attention of young adult males with public health messages embedded in short films before the featured presentation in movie theaters just won't fly. The customers have paid to see the main event and don't want to be distracted. However, Ajit's idea of weaving public health themes into the plot elements of cartoon series like "The Simpsons' has real merit. However, The Simpsons' is so unique that it's probably not a good idea to extrapolate from the experience of this show. The key question, then, is how to interest the writers of other shows to adopt this approach on a broader basis.
I do reject the idea of "product placement," which is to say, paying the producers of a TV series to sneak in plot messages about sexually transmitted diseases or other public health issues. Perhaps a more successful approach would be for professional medical societies such as the College of American Pathologists (CAP) to make overtures to the executives in the video game, TV, movie industries to feature health issues in their plots. They could then provide physician experts from among their ranks to assist the producers of these media in getting the message right. My concern in such relationships is that there will be a large understanding and communication gap between the various parties. Such relationships, I am sure, already exist in the form of paid expert consultants who are hired by the media producers to avoid obvious factual errors.
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