Rinse, repeat

Amplify public-health messages

Years ago, I did presentations on cigarette advertising using photos of old magazine ads. Two ads stood out, one showing a tired doctor sitting near a hospital room smoking a cigarette, and another had a busy doctor in the emergency room taking a quick break to smoke.

One time I spoke to a group of medical personnel. I finished my talk, and they took a break while I packed up. When I left, I walked through a bunch of them outside smoking.

We have so much more accurate information now; we react with shock when we see doctors featured in old cigarette ads. But looking back, I think I missed the point.

What I should have learned from Life magazine and Saturday Evening Post and all the other magazines with so many rosy depictions of cigarettes is that repetitive messaging works. In those days if you thumbed through a magazine, there were multiple tobacco ads in those pages. And there was always more: television, radio, billboards, free giveaways at stores, bus-stop benches. Yes, it is shocking to see doctors in cigarette ads, but if doctors weren’t available, there were an abundance of other effective ads. The onslaught of big-dollar advertising for tobacco was so great, you could have probably used ads with a cigarette in a camel’s mouth and been just as successful.

Oh, wait …

What I should have reacted to is the fact that there was no counter-message to all the unhealthy information. What if a well-funded advertiser in the early days did a campaign targeting children on the perils of tobacco with the same intensity and number of messages, but with accurate public health information? How many more people and their offspring would still be alive?

I think of that now when we hear so much discussion in the news and in our homes about masks and physical distancing. We are getting repeated messaging now, but the messages are part of a national political and cultural churning that often seems divisive and removed from our lives and our apprehensions, and the messages are coming from people most of us don’t know. And what can sometimes seem overwhelmingly frustrating is that everyone wants the same thing: Get to a safe “normal.”

The public-health science is pretty clear: As much fresh air whether inside or outside as possible, masks, physical separation, and good handwashing.

Here’s what I would like to see happen: a sustained campaign from local people we trust reinforcing these common-sense and proven recommendations. And who are these local people? Coaches, teachers, doctors, ministers, business and community leaders, celebrities — anyone, in fact, who has a following.

And how can it happen? Coaches have parent meetings, team meetings, spirit rallies, media interviews. Include a brief repeat of the prevention message. Ministers have sermons, websites, bulletins, and Sunday Schools. Include the brief message. Teachers and principals communicate with both students and parents. Repeat the brief message. Business and community leaders have advertisements, emails, websites, billboards. Repeat the brief message. And a whole lot of employers have employees. Repeat the brief message.

We want kids in school, businesses open, sports with fans, and the opportunity to see a movie, go to church, or eat in a restaurant. Repeat the brief message.