Comments on: (Non)infection as a Social Relation http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/ Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog Thu, 24 May 2012 01:47:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog » Addressing Publics Positively: Some Developments in HIV Prevention http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/comment-page-1/#comment-46580 Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog » Addressing Publics Positively: Some Developments in HIV Prevention Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:34:13 +0000 http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/#comment-46580 [...] Earlier on Savage Minds, I asked about contemporary shifts in the symbolism and sociality of HIV/AIDS—a global epidemic. The question concerns me as someone who found himself along with other members of ACT UP, in the early mid-90s, in places like the parking lot of the Astrodome yelling at delegates to the Republican National Convention about funding for healthcare. It concerns me as someone who, in the late mid-90s, was employed as a professional ethnographer (!) tracking social knowledge related to sexual risk in San Francisco. These days, I am interested in the meaning of HIV and the ways in which that meaning is mediated and manifested specifically through what might be called technologies of public persuasion, whether they are relatively complex, such as social marketing campaigns (on the left above), or fairly simple, such as political protest posters (on the right). [...] [...] Earlier on Savage Minds, I asked about contemporary shifts in the symbolism and sociality of HIV/AIDS—a global epidemic. The question concerns me as someone who found himself along with other members of ACT UP, in the early mid-90s, in places like the parking lot of the Astrodome yelling at delegates to the Republican National Convention about funding for healthcare. It concerns me as someone who, in the late mid-90s, was employed as a professional ethnographer (!) tracking social knowledge related to sexual risk in San Francisco. These days, I am interested in the meaning of HIV and the ways in which that meaning is mediated and manifested specifically through what might be called technologies of public persuasion, whether they are relatively complex, such as social marketing campaigns (on the left above), or fairly simple, such as political protest posters (on the right). [...]

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]]> By: John McCreery http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/comment-page-1/#comment-20453 John McCreery Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:54:08 +0000 http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/#comment-20453 If you aren't already aware of it, allow me to strongly recommend Richard Earle ( 2000 ) <i>The Art of Cause Marketing: How to Use Advertising to Change Personal Behavior and Public Policy </i>. The paperback edition is readily available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071387021/102-9046480-3828954?v=glance&n=283155" rel="nofollow">Amazon</a>. This is, IMHO, the single best book ever written on the topic. Highlights for me include (1) Earle's discussion of the difference between corporate and cause pitches, the latter frequently complicated by dealing with officials who are clueless about advertising and subject to elaborate bureaucratic rules; (2) his superb analysis of targeting and why Nancy Reagan's "Just say 'No'," a line coined for speaking to elementary school students, went over like a lead balloon with teenagers, and (3) his thoughts on the special problems of speaking to "the addicted consumer," who is the antithesis of the usual, uninterested consumer whom the advertiser hopes to move from attention to interest to decision to action, a.k.a., buying the product. You don't, for example, ever want to show needles and drugs in campaigns directed at heroin addicts, since while the images may be gripping to non-addicts, to addicts they recall the rush of taking the drug. Ditto for slot machines in ads directed at compulsive gamblers. If you aren’t already aware of it, allow me to strongly recommend Richard Earle ( 2000 ) The Art of Cause Marketing: How to Use Advertising to Change Personal Behavior and Public Policy . The paperback edition is readily available on Amazon.

This is, IMHO, the single best book ever written on the topic. Highlights for me include (1) Earle’s discussion of the difference between corporate and cause pitches, the latter frequently complicated by dealing with officials who are clueless about advertising and subject to elaborate bureaucratic rules; (2) his superb analysis of targeting and why Nancy Reagan’s “Just say ‘No’,” a line coined for speaking to elementary school students, went over like a lead balloon with teenagers, and (3) his thoughts on the special problems of speaking to “the addicted consumer,” who is the antithesis of the usual, uninterested consumer whom the advertiser hopes to move from attention to interest to decision to action, a.k.a., buying the product. You don’t, for example, ever want to show needles and drugs in campaigns directed at heroin addicts, since while the images may be gripping to non-addicts, to addicts they recall the rush of taking the drug. Ditto for slot machines in ads directed at compulsive gamblers.

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]]> By: Dris http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/comment-page-1/#comment-20450 Dris Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:16:44 +0000 http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/#comment-20450 Thanks to you as well. In response; perhaps they cannot. I look forward to your analysis of both areas. Thanks to you as well. In response; perhaps they cannot. I look forward to your analysis of both areas.

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]]> By: Strong http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/comment-page-1/#comment-20432 Strong Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:47:55 +0000 http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/#comment-20432 Thank you. How could discussing the "culturally-derived values... [that] facilitate and constrain" a decision regarding health be disarticulated from an analysis of the presuppositions encoded in social marketing with respect to health? To my mind, one does not preclude the other. As my post indicated: in fact, ethnographic knowledge has been put to very good use in developing both an understanding of the social aspects of the HIV epidemic and in designing and implementing particular kinds of interventions. HIV is not only a biological phenomenon: it is a densely symbolic one. There’s more to the story than the possible (ir)rationality of decisions people make. Thank you. How could discussing the “culturally-derived values… [that] facilitate and constrain” a decision regarding health be disarticulated from an analysis of the presuppositions encoded in social marketing with respect to health? To my mind, one does not preclude the other. As my post indicated: in fact, ethnographic knowledge has been put to very good use in developing both an understanding of the social aspects of the HIV epidemic and in designing and implementing particular kinds of interventions. HIV is not only a biological phenomenon: it is a densely symbolic one. There’s more to the story than the possible (ir)rationality of decisions people make.

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]]> By: Dris http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/comment-page-1/#comment-20414 Dris Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:54:40 +0000 http://savageminds.org/2006/08/21/noninfection-as-a-social-relation/#comment-20414 The concept of informed health decision-making is a growing theme in health promotion. I see this as an opportunity for anthropologists to do more than simply unpack an issue. Perhaps, rather than deconstructing a public health program, we might discuss how and why culturally-derived values can facilitate and constrain the decision to seek out and act on health information? The concept of informed health decision-making is a growing theme in health promotion. I see this as an opportunity for anthropologists to do more than simply unpack an issue. Perhaps, rather than deconstructing a public health program, we might discuss how and why culturally-derived values can facilitate and constrain the decision to seek out and act on health information?

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