Keep Swine Flu Alive – for comedic effect
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
H1N1 might save pork producers, but swine flu is a better label for protecting young people. In a recent Globe and Mail Article “Flu disproportionately targets young and healthy” it appears this flu is targeting a non-traditional group – youth. Part of the essential communication about this virus will be the use of comedy. For all the right reasons -from a health promotion standpoint anyway- swine flu has a lot more comic potential than H1N1. First the duel label for the pandemic virus has now served to confuse the general public. Second we might be losing a powerful communication weapon by switching to a benign alphanumeric label.
That comedy works for communicating to young people is common knowledge. In DECODE’s international study of young people’s general interests, comedy was only topped by music and film. Young people love to laugh, even about serious things. Its the way they get the story across. Its the way they learn about events. Political strategy 101 seems to state that lead candidates (or the candidates in the US case) should strive to appear on all late night shows at least once to get the youth vote.
Some of the best case studies in communicating information about Sexually Transmitted Infections to young people use comedy at the core to make sure the message has sustaining conversational power.
The World Health Organization contemplates closing schools in September to slow the spread of swine flu, they and governments around the world must supplement drastic measure with effective communication. A crucial part of good communication is good memorable branding. Swine flu is simply a better brand.
The next step is creating ways to inject the right amount of comedy into swine flu to help quell the anti-viral injections that loom large.
Category Environment, Pharmaceutical | Tags: Tags: comedy, H1N1 virus, Health Promotion, politics, Swine flu,