How many of you watch the hit TV show Glee??  If you don't, you should check it out.  It's sensational!  It's like High School Musical for adults on TV.  

Being in tune with pop culture, like GLEEEE, can have its benefits.  I was recently asked in an interview to analyze Glee's marketing strategy and how it differentiated itself from other TV shows.  I don't really remember what I said... but it was an enjoyable conversation.  

So in summary, watch GLee!  

In addition to working for the ALC, I also have loyalties with another nonprofit called SEE College Prep.  It was actually founded by a Stanford student who is my year and started the whole thing during a social entrepreneurship class.  SEE used to stand for Stanford Educational Enterprises, but since they're not operating under Stanford anymore, now it just stands for nothing.  Anyways, SEE College Prep is a non-profit that has helped nearly 500 low-income students at seven program sites across California improve their SAT scores an average of 210 points. Many of the students are now attending UC’s and private colleges, including UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Yale. SEE partners with schools and college access organizations and integrate directly into their existing programs, offering a 42-hour SAT preparation program for their students during the summer. Currently, we work with three Upward Bound programs (UCSD, UCI, and Santa Ana College), two high schools, and two non-profits. 

While technically a nonprofit, SEE also has a "revenue generating" side.  They offer SAT prep to students who can pay and use their tuition to sustain the free services.  It's the same SAT prep program for all students, which makes SEE competitive with other services like Kaplan or Princeton Review.  If people are willing to pay for SEE College Prep, then it's reassurance that it is a quality program. 

www.seecollegeprep.com

If it's one thing that Stanford has made me realize, it's my utter lack of prioritization ability.  It was fine in high school when there wasn't too much to do, but it's been a problem since.  Trying to juggle everything and give each task equal priority = disaster.  I've definitely learned to let go of more things senior quarter and let things be.  First thing to go:  econ sections.  2nd thing to go:  exercise (my dad would be so disappointed).  I'm not sure if I'm prioritizing optimally, but things always manage to work out.  Relax and breathe....

Google gave the gift of free Wifi for the holiday season to San Jose Airport and 46 other airports.  I remember hearing about this a while back, but now I'm chillin in the airport, blogging on East Villagers using this magical thing called WIFI!!  and it's free, the best part.  I haven't even noticed any advertising, which is great.  Definitely makes the 3 hour wait-time plus likely delay (bad weather conditions over the Sierras = sadness) more bearable. 

Read more about it here:

lifehacker.com/5401140/google-offers-free-wi+fi-at-airports-during-the-holidays

For most of us, this is the last thing on our mind, but I thought I'd bring it up anyways. In my health care policy class, we're learning about end of life care right now, and one of the things we're talking about is Hospice care.  Hospice care shifts the focus from treating illness to relieving symptoms and making the patient and family comfortable.  Medicare will pay the full cost of hospice care under certain conditions.  One of them being you must not seek "heroic measures"- surgery, expensive treatments, experimental drugs, etc.  Your physiciain also has to confirm that you only have 6 months or fewer to live.  After a person's death,  Hospice care is also there to provide assistance for the family to relieve suffering and help in the coping stage.  Anyways, just thought this was interesting.  Probably not relevant for many of us, but it's hard to think we may have to deal with this in the future for our own parents....

In planning hep B outreach events, a careful consideration to make is who the audience is.  For Team HBV Stanford, we don't want to make the mistake of only educating Asian Pacific Islanders.  While APIs are at highest risk, a public health issue like hepatitis B is the responsibility of the entire community.  In the short-term, it may be most impactful to target one population.  You can see immediate results in the number of APIs who get screened or talk to their doctors.  However, in the long term, it is in the best interests of the cause to raise general awareness among the entire population.  Take HIV/AIDS and breast cancer.  What once was just a "gay disease" or a disease considered to be isolated in Africa, HIV/AIDS is now a global repsonsibility.  Breast cancer supporters come from all walks of life, and you certainly don't have to be a middle-aged woman to support the cause or know anything about it.  Similarly with hepatitis B, anybody and everybody can play a role in eliminating this disease.  Even if you aren't API, you probably know someone who is.  Targeting the general population at the college age is especially impactful.  What students know now will stay with them and who knows what it could influence in the future.  The people we talk to now will become the future policymakers, politicians, business leaders, doctors, and advocates who can make hepatitis B a top priority. 

One year ago... I was in Beijing!  I went to Beijing with a group of about 20 others to study abroad with a Stanford program.  For those of you at Stanford, I definitely encourage everybody to take advantage of Stanford's great overseas opportunities.  You can study abroad for a quarter and pay the same tuition.  The Bings are incredibly generous and allow students to see parts of the world you could never imagine.  For our Bing trip, we went to Dunhuang, a city at the end of the silk road in the middle of the Gobi desert.  Who would ever think to plan a vacation there?  Regardless, it was awesome.  We went sand sledding, camelback riding, ate some yummy and not so yummy new foods.  We explored ancient Buddhist caves and saw parts of the Great Wall that had never been retouched.  There in its original form!  plus a little erosion. 

Despite these great opportunities in China, for some reason students at Stanford don't choose to go to the Beijing program.  It is perpetually under capacity.  Why??? 

I, like many other ABCs, went to Chinese school.  and absolutely despised it.  My parents and I got into so many fights about my lack of interest in attending Chinese school on a Sunday afternoon.  After several years of temper tantrums, they finally gave up and let me drop out.  They said I would regret it.  It's the language of my ancestors, and I would wish one day when I was older that I had learned it.   How many kids share the exact same story?  Well, I don't know about any of you, but that day arrived.  Your parents are always right.  I do regret not learning it, but I'm also glad I had the chance to realize for myself how much I value it.  It's never too late to learn it, but at this point, it will be a steep uphill battle to become fluent.  I don't think I'll have the time to achieve the level I'd like, but I appreciate what I do know and the ability to learn more.  Now I have the burden of passing this lesson on to my own kids... yikes

Looking back on my recent Thanksgivings, I've been fortunate to have spent them with great people in great places.  Two years ago, I went to Orange County and had a Vietnamese-style Thanksgiving dinner with loads of turkey and Vietnamese food.  Yummm.  Last year, I was in Beijing with a study abroad program, and even though we were in China, our program directors brought Thanksgiving to us!  The food was actually delicious considering it was made in China... the pumpkin pie was superb.  This year, I'll be spending Thanksgiving in Reno, Nevada!  I might even be helping with the preparation.  My mom has this delicious stuffing recipe that I might try to rip off.  It's stuffing with an Asian twist:  sticky rice, shitake mushrooms, pork, and some sort of brown sauce.  anyways, I'm ridiculously excited for my favorite holiday of the year! 

A friend and I just attended an event that talked about "New Models in Philanthropy."  The 3 guest panelists included the co-founder of Kiva, the founder of Silicon Valley Social Venture - also the daughter of Arrillaga (sound familiar to you Stanford folks?), and the co-founder of Legacy Venture.  Jessica from Kiva gave a really engaging talk about her history with Kiva and how far it's come.  I was shocked to learn that Kiva helped faciliate something like 10 million loans last year, and they hope to reach over a billion in 5 years.  This microlending model seems to have worked really well, and the most inspiring part about it definitely came from the details in the stories she told.  Each entrepreneur uses the loan to provide for him/herself and the family, and they do it through their own hard work and ingenuity and are able to do it with dignity.  These people know best how to create success and happiness for themselves and can take care of the small details that others would have missed.  SUCH AS buying a lock for the their house.  or buying extra teaspoons of sugar for their afternoon tea.  Powerfull stuff right?

These new peer to peer models of philanthropy are really interesting and have really been able to capitalize on the huge numbers of individual donors out there.  It's definitely something I'm interested in getting more involved in/learning more about. 

A fun project I"m working on this year is to create the ALC Intern Facebook.  It'll be a binder with "profile pages" of all the interns who have worked with the ALC.  Part of this is functional- it's useful to look back on interns and their projects when new interns plan their events. But it's also great to have a record of all the people who have contributed and the projects they created.   For all those past interns out there, be sure to send me your current status and memorable stories from the ALC! 

So last year, I heard about these community guides that are produced by the Hesperian Foundation. 

Check it out here: www.hesperian.org/

Here is their About Us:

"Hesperian is a non-profit publisher of books and newsletters for community-based health care. Our first book, Where There Is No Doctor, is considered to be one of the most accessible and widely used community health books in the world.

Simply written and heavily illustrated, Hesperian books are designed so that people with little formal education can understand, apply and share health information. Developed collaboratively with health workers and community members from around the world, our books and newsletters address the underlying social, political, and economic causes of poor health and suggest ways groups can organize to improve health conditions in their communities. In addition, Hesperian relies on a multi-faceted distribution strategy to ensure our materials reach those who need them most."

I think you can download a couple of them.  Take a look!  I really like them because they're written in a way that is easy to understand by regular people and are meant to be used by regular people.  I think it'd be great to get one made for Hepatitis B!  If not through Hesperian, then through a different channel.   Individuals who don't have a local Team HBV Chapter or don't have the resources and support of the Asian LIver Center in their backyard can still make a difference.  A guide would be helpful in directing people in how to talk about hep B, how to approach communities, and how to organize small-scale yet effective outreach efforts. 

So my past blogs about social marketing stemmed from a class I took in which a group of us analyzed the use of information and communication technology in global public health efforts.  People ended up writing about some really interesting topics: Community radio programs, various health campaigns, the use of internet, etc.  The ALC and East Villager's focus on social media ties in nicely as well. 

Visit the blogs here: 

stanford.edu/class/humbio129s/cgi-bin/blogs/globalizationinfocomm/2009

I had some blogs earlier about social marketing, and I wanted to add in the last blog of a series I wrote for Global Public Health, a class here at Stanford.

Future of Social Marketing

As this blog wraps up, I wanted to focus the attention on what the future will look like for social marketing and how we as public health students can play a role.  I have explored some of the ways in which social marketing has impacted national and global public health, both positively and negatively.  Though a relatively new field, social marketing has come a long way in the past twenty years and has established itself as a relevant and recognized practice.

Many in the social marketing community are now calling for collective engagement for the creation of a global organization dedicated to social marketing.  Recently, a petition was released online that calls for the creation of such an organization.  It also sets out core principles that the social marketing community believes in and outlines a process for creating a social marketing organization.  You can find the petition here: http://fusomar.epetitions.net/.  The authors of the petition hope to have the principles and goals accomplished by June 2010, when the 20th anniversary of the Social Marketing in Public Health conference meets.  Some of the things this organization would do include:

o    Discuss and propose the goals, scope, structure, business model and operations of the association;
o    Draft a charter, mechanism to elect officers and other elements of the organization (by-laws);
o    Offer a guide for the emerging organization through all stages of development;
o    Establish workgroups for achieving other objectives (for example, education resources, staffing, practice standards, credentialing, communications, and advocacy);
o    Establish steps, stages, and timelines for further organizational development; and
o    Provide timely and regular communications with the larger social marketing community through electronic channels and social marketing publications during this process and be prepared to present their completed work at the Congress for open discussion and voting among all attendees.

Other trends in both commercial and social marketing will push the field in certain directions.  For example, business has apparently found it more profitable to retain existing customers than continually win new ones.  Social marketing adopts this idea and recognize the potential for people who are already interested in health improvement offerings (like smoking cessation services) to become more committed to health improvement.  This is only one approach and one opinion, and others point to social marketing’s role in intervention and radically changing behavior as more important.

Some of the issues that social marketing can benefit in the future include obesity, water security, malaria, environmentalism.  Social marketing has a proven track record in changing both dietary and exercise behavior, and many are hopeful that strategic health marketing can combat the obesity epidemic.  To reach its full potential however, social marketing must have a long-term approach.  Oftentimes political short-termism limits the ability for government to enact permanent changes in public health.  The government and public health organizations should match the kind of long-term, high impact branding that corporations utilize to sell a product.  Public health does not change overnight, and social marketing needs to plan accordingly in order to impact social behavior.

Since our speakers in the past couple of weeks have discussed what there is to be done in public health beyond the medical profession, I thought it’d be relevant to mention a few more ideas here.  Within social marketing alone, there are so many diverse opportunities available for one to impact public health.  Looking through the website for the 2010 Social Marketing in Public Health conference, the speakers and presenters involved come from a wide range of backgrounds.  You can see more here: http://www.cme.hsc.usf.edu .  There are public health education experts, communications professors, community health research professors, marketing directors.  It seems like a marketing background is not necessary to get involved in social marketing.  Not all social marketing campaigns take place at the level of things like the Red campaign or the Designated Driver campaign.  Local efforts to promote recycling or exercise are also opportunities for social marketing to have a role.  Regardless of what profession you pursue, there is a chance for your skills to benefit social marketing in public health, and it’s nice to see the different paths that people have taken.

http://fusomar.epetitions.net/.

http://www.cme.hsc.usf.edu

Lefebvre, Craig. “The Future of Social Marketing: A Call for Collective Engagement for the Creation of a Global Organization.” Weblog post. On Social Marketing and Social Change. 19 May 2009. 27 May 2009 <http://socialmarketing.blogs.com/r_craiig_lefebvres_social/>.

Stead, M., Hastings, G., and L. McDermott. “The meaning, effectiveness and future of social marketing.” Obesity Reviews 8.1(2007): 189-193.

Dylan asked the 4 seniors of Team HBV at our first meeting why we kept coming back to the ALC.  Great question.  We all care deeply about the cause and think the work we do is important.  But why come back to the ALC to do it?  Each of us said about the same thing.  It's obviously not the pay - which is appreciated but not a great reason to come back....  It's not about recognition or status.  We all came back because of each other.  The ALC has fostered some of my closest friendships at Stanford, and I could not ask for a better team to work with.  Having the ALC in common does make the bond stronger, but they're all also incredible individuals.  Thanks friends for keeping me honest and sane.

I'm brainstorming things to do after graduation.  Contrary to popular belief (ok, not really popular belief, just the belief of many whom i have encountered), I am not premed.  Thus, I am not going to medical school.  Thus, I need to find a job.  My dream job would be to run my own foundation, give away my billions to individuals who are doing great work, and support them in their endeavors.  There are SO many small organizations that are in tune with their communities, understand the people and the problems, and address the issues in specialized ways.  While institutional change is important, I find the work of these small individuals most inspiring.  Anyways, I really just need a job.  It'd be great to have a job that would someday lead me to this dream, but I'm not really sure what that might be.  I don't have the financial resources to get a coterm.  I'd be interested in getting into business.  But I really have no idea.  Please help! 

Team HBV Stanford is planning a Hep B Awareness Week in May to coincide with World Hepatitis Day.  The week's goal is to educate more of the student body on hepatitis B issues and to mobilize students to get screened.  Here are some of the ideas we came up with that I really like:

• Collaborating with the dining halls on campus and serving "jade cookies" while educating people about hep B. Jade cookies, jade cake, jade brownies, jade punch, jade fries,.... the possibilities are endless.  Some are more appetizing than others
• Jade Ribbon Day:  splattering the campus with jade.  Tying jade colored balloons to the throngs of bikes around campus.  Encouraging people to wear jade, and if we see them wearing jade in White Plaza, they win a prize! 
• Setting up a visual representation of the impact of hep B on the world in White Plaza.  Something similar that other groups have done is to put a cross in the field for every 10 people that have died from x,y,z disease or for every baby aborted (definitely more political than we're aiming for, but you get the point). 
• Game night:  probably not something we're going to implement for Hep B Awareness Week but maybe another time.  Get people together to play ping pong, Halo, Mario kart, etc etc.  with snacks! 
• speaker event: pretty standard.  Dr. So the man will enlighten us with his wisdom
• at the end of the week, a screening will be held.  free for at-risk students! 

When Team HBV Stanford originally registered as an ASSU student group, we counted ourselves as a "social awareness" student group.  However, after some consideration, we think we would be a better fit under "community service."  As a community service group, we also get the bonus of having the support and resources of the Haas Center for Public Service.  I'm wondering what other Team HBVs have done.  Do you see yourself as more community service, social awareness, or health-oriented?  Each chapter does things a little differently, so it'd be interesting to see what the different paths have been.  The grouping doesn't make that big of a difference but does affect the focus of activities and the mission of the group. 

Since this is Team HBV at Stanford's first year, we're focusing a lot of energy on just getting things started.  However, it is equally important to remember what we hope to leave behind for future years.  Our group is composed of 4 seniors and 2 underclassmen, and a major concern is being able to leave Team HBV in good hands once we seniors graduate.  So far, I've been incredibly impressed with the enthusiasm and dedication of our 2 younger members.  They obviously care a great deal about the cause and have remained committed after spending time on the Jade Ribbon Youth Council.  Our job as seniors is to make sure we can pass on the knowledge and skills that we've gained in the past 4 years.  As a result, the younger members have a lot of responsibilities this year and face a steep learning curve.  Based on the involvement, the creativity, and the dedication I've witnessed, our younger members have great promise, and I think we'll see Team HBV Stanford succeed for many years to come. 

Go Team HBV Stanford! 

I've seen a few groups now who have used performance art in their approach to hep B outreach.  They've been really inspiring!  From dance performances, spoken word pieces, hugging campaigns, these ideas are eye-catching and memorable.  Now I really want to incorporate elements of performance art into our own Team HBV Stanford activities!  It might not be possible to create our own full-blown show, but I'm interested in working with other student groups.  The Korean Students Association and the Vietnamese Students Association hold annual shows to showcase their cultures.  Cultural dances, fashion shows, and other performance pieces are often incorporated into their shows.  It'd be great to work with them to add a hep B element as well.  Targeting the right audience while spreading our cause in a fun way!  One of Team HBV Stanford's members is a talented poet- perhaps a spoken word piece or a poetry reading is in order?  We all know talented dancers, whether it's ballet, hip hop or jazz, so maybe we an work with them to choregraph a hep B dance like Duke did?  Can't wait to start brainstorming!

My last blog post was about difficulty with getting money.  In brainstorming about potential activities for Team HBV, I've tried to keep our budget (or lack thereof) in mind.  In our first year, Team HBV Stanford will have to be especially creative for our outreach and education events.  One thing I really want to do is have a "Jade Ribbon Day" where students are encouraged to wear jade to support the Jade Ribbon Campaign!  This will hopefully happen during Hepatitis B Awareness Week, which is something we're currently planning.  We'll try to get in-kind donations from local vendors, and these will be given out to students who we see wearing jade in White Plaza on Jade Ribbon Day!  Another idea, inspired by East Villagers, is to have a social media day.  Those who tweet or make facebook updates about hepatitis B and link it to our Team HBV Stanford fb page or twitter account will be entered into a drawing for a prize. 

Not having a large budget can be a strain but also allows us to be creative in our planning process!

The first obvious barrier to launching our Team HBV's activities is MONEY!  Where are we supposed to get funding to implement all the great ideas we have? It's great that Team HBV Conference is hitting this topic because it is so practically necessary.

The tricky thing about Stanford is that you can't accept outside donations.  That rules out external grants.  It's also hard to plan fundraisers without having that seed money to begin with.  There are also strict restrictions on selling goods.  So what does that leave us with?  Here's what we've been doing:

1. Applying to on-campus grants!  Even though Stanford limits external grants, they offer lots of on-campus resources for student groups.  As president, I have taken on the resonsibility of applying for all these funding sources.  There are departmental grants for students in the major who have creative project ideas.  There are research grants for students, so I've molded our Team HBV projects to include a research component.  There are vice provost and office of student affairs grants that are supportive of student group activities. 

2. Talking to other student groups.  We will be contacting other Asian-interest and health student groups to see if partnerships can be established to fund our projects. 

3. Stanfordddddd:  We just became an official ASSU student group and will now be able to apply for a host of Stanford resources, including The Stanford Fund money and Special Fees (paid for by students!). 

4. Once we have money, we can start planning events to raise money!  Ideas welcome. 

Being at events like Team HBV Conference is such a great reminder of the impact that young people can have.  There is so much potential in everybody here, and I've been thoroughly impressed with the projects that high school and college students have created. 

We just watched a creative viral video created by a 16 year old JRYC student.  It's a spinoff of the original "End of Ze World" video and is pretty hilarious.  It's catered perfectly towards our generation of young adults.  Definitely a memorable yet informative viral vid.  I was definitely impressed that a sophomore in high school could create something that would be popular enough to be viewed by half a million people. 

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTX2rHTvW-E

The story about Lei Chuang in China is particularly impressive.  A true innovator and pioneer in hepatits B outreach.  I love the idea of the Hug a Hep B carrier campaign.  Particularly in China where hep B is stigmatized, it is extremely difficult to make yourself vulnerable by sharing your story and promoting a cause that is not widely supported.  Kudos to Lei.  

My belief is that we don't all need to be the Paul Farmers or the Bill Gates of the world.  If we each have a passion for something, anything, and act on it in some capacity, whether big or small, our world can change.  The habit of giving back starts at a young age, and what I've seen this weekend gives me a lot of hope that our youth can be that change. 

Right now, sitting in on the "how to talk about hep B" presentation at Team HBV Conference.  I thought I'd throw out one of my spiels that I've used recently to movitate Stanford students to get screened.  I used this little speech at Asian-interest student group meetings earlier in the year, talking to students about my story with hep B and why they should be proactive about their own hep B awareness.  The following is a bit personal, so thanks for reading.  I'd love to hear your feedback!  Would YOU get screened after hearing this? 

------------

Hi my name is Joy, and I'm a senior at Stanford.  Bob was nice enough to let me steal a couple minutes of your time to talk to you guys about a really important issue in the API community.  How many of you have heard of hepatitis B and know what it is? ...... How many of you have been vaccinated? .....and how many of you have gotten tested to make sure you don't have it? 

So here's my story.  I found out two years ago as a sophomore that I have hepatitis B.  I went to a screening offered by the Asian Liver Center, where I was and still am an intern.  Got the test results a few weeks later, and it was actually my boss who gave me the news.  I was completely surprised.  You see, i was born and raised in the States, and I thought that the 1 in 10 statistic only applied to those in Asian countries.  I was even vaccinated before preschool at the age of 3 or 4- I double checked the records.  I thought there was no way I could have this disease. 

It's taken me 2 years to really come public with this information, and I'm doing so now because I know there are more students JUST LIKE ME.   The most common mode of transmission is from mother to child, so it's very likely for children of immigrants to be infected.  

The important point is that you can DO something about it.  If you find out you have it, there are ways to prevent liver disease from developing.  You can live a completely normal life.  But you have to know.  Chances are you don't have it.  But for the 1 in 10 who do, it's important you find out now.  So please get tested.  Vaden offers testing, Planned Parenthood offers, you can go to your doctor, the ALC hosts screenings in San Jose.  All it takes is one phone call, and a simple blood test.

In attending Team HBV Conference this weekend, I'm excited to meet a diverse group of students who are all working towards hepatitis B prevention and elimination.  I expect many to be premed, but it's also great to see students who don't plan on going to medical school but are still invested in the cause.  I hope we get to hear from speakers this weekend who haven't taken the premed route but are still impacting the public health sphere. 

The Asian Liver Center is a great source of inspiration for those who want to impact public health. There are doctors like Dr. So and Dr. Stephanie who have gotten their MDs, practice medicine, and also work to improve outreach and education of hepatitis B.  In addition, there are fantastic staff members who have gotten their MPH and are furthering public health efforts by working in the nonprofit sector.  They launch and coordinate projects to educate physicians, mothers, businesses, or entire cities.  Additionally, there are staff members doing clinical research and community-based research, assessing effective models for outreach or measuring change in knowledge and attitudes toward hep B. 

In my time with the ALC, i've been able to meet a wide variety of people who are doing their part to advance hep B awareness.  The possibilities beyond premed are endless.  Just a few examples I can think of:

• Media:  AsianWeek supports the Jade Ribbon Campaign by highlighting health issues relevant to the API community.  Filmmakers like Aaron Deemer produce documentaries
• Policy:  I worked for Liz Kniss at the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors one summer doing health policy. Her office writes policies to address local health issues and implements projects to improve health in local communities. Fiona Ma is a strong supporter of the Jade Ribbon Campaign and has helped introduce bills in the California State Assembly to address hep B in the API population.
• Business:  Amy Yu heads up corporate outreach and has worked with people within large corporations who want to improve the health of their employees.  Supporters at Ranch 99 helped us launch our Jade Ribbon shopping bag to raise awareness with shoppers.  I've talked to consultants who work within their nonprofit consulting branch to improve the efficacy of organizations who do public health work, or they consult the government on health care policy and insurance reform. 
• Law: I actually can't think of any personal examples for this one, but I'm sure they're out there...
• Philanthropic foundations: they fund so much of current public health efforts.  Leaders in foundations can have a powerful impact on the direction of public health and can sway public support for a cause they deem important.

Anyways, there are tons more examples, but the point is you can do anything and still be a public health advocate! 

from a blog for a global public health class

Hollywood’s Influence in Social Marketing

Much as it may be hard to admit, celebrities have an incredible amount of power and sway in people’s lives.  They’re glamorous, rich, famous, and pretty to look at—it’s only logical that they are quickly swept up in marketing gimmicks.  When it comes to social marketing, the story doesn’t seem any different.  Just to put things in perspective, when George Clooney went on Oprah Winfrey’s show in April 2006 after his visit to Africa, contributions to UNICEF rose 20%.  After Lucy Liu visited earthquake victims in Pakistan in 2006, donations to earthquake relief funds increased by 240%.  Almost every celebrity and star seems to have his or her cause, and the humanitarian effort does seem to go a long way.  Of course, celebrities gain a lot in the process as well.  They do good and, in doing so, get their names out.

There is also something called entertainment education, which incorporates an educational message into popular entertainment content (TV shows, movies) to raise awareness or increase knowledge about something.  This strategy has raised a number of health issues in entertainment programming, including substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other diseases.  Entertainment education is different from a public service announcement, but both have been effective tools in community health and social issues.  Apparently, after an episode of Happy Days where Fonzie goes to the library to meet girls and ends up with a library card, the nationwide demand for library cards spiked 500%.  These kind of plot lines are sometimes a result of the producers and scriptwriters or others who are directly associated with the production.  Other times, special interest groups or health organizations reach out to the entertainment community with the help of Hollywood-based advocacy organizations.  The Harvard Alcohol Project’s National Designated Driver Campaign has been considered one of the most successful efforts to promote health through Hollywood.  They were able to work with the Hollywood community and got more than 160 prime time shows, including The Cosby Show and Cheers, to include subplots, scenes, dialogue, and sometimes entire episodes addressing the campaign theme.

While celebrities help some causes, others criticize their role in social marketing.  Celebrities come with costs, both money and time-wise.  There are dangers in associating with celebrities- their reputation, good or bad, is associated with the cause.  It may be hard to match your cause with someone who will appeal to your audience.  Probably the most serious dilemma that comes with celebrity endorsement is the implication it has for “doing good” in general.  Some call it the “Hollywoodization of doing good” in which a big name is needed to get attention for a cause.  The emphasis on star power makes it really hard for worthwhile organizations who do great work to get public attention.  The nonprofit I work for- the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University- often feels like it’s competing with “sexier” causes who have sexy celebs backing them up.  As an example, a few years back, the United Nations Development Program and the Beijing-based Epin Media company created a program to increase awareness about HIV/AIDS and fight discrimination against HIV carriers and AIDS patients.  The public service announcement included Yao Ming and Magic Johnson, “calling on the public not to fear or discriminate against those with HIV/AIDS.” It was aired in Beijing’s buses, taxis, and local TV channels.  A search for similar TV ads related to hepatitis B did not return any results, and according to the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University, there are currently no hepatitis B public service announcements running in China.  Recently, NBC has expressed interest in airing a public service announcement in the United States about hepatitis B with celebrities spreading the message.  Despite the pitfalls of celebrity endorsement and the frustration it causes, it’s hard to deny the power of your favorite soap opera actress telling you to care about something.  If given the opportunity, who could resist the chance to use Hollywood as leverage for your cause?

Works Cited
Boustany, Nora. “Hollywood Stars Find an Audience For Social Causes.” Washington Post 10 June 2007.

“Cause celebre: Celebrities and their causes.” CNN 21 June 2006. 14 May 2009 <CNN.com>.
“Entertainment Education and Health in the United States.” Kaiser Family Foundation Issue Brief Spring (2004).

Keene, Alden. “Using Celebrities to Enhance Your Cause-Related Marketing.” Weblog post. Cause Marketing. 2 Feb. 2007. 14 May 2009 <http://causerelatedmarketing.blogspot.com/2007/02/using-celebrities-to-enhance-your-cause.html>.

“Yao Ming, Magic Johnson TV ad launched to fight discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients.” People’s Daily Online.  Source: Xinhua.  Updated 5 Mar. 2006.

This is my 3rd year as an intern with the Asian Liver Center, and one of the things I've had to do is lead the volunteer training sessions.  Today was the first one I had to lead for the year, and a big group came out to Stanford Hospital for the training.  We had high school students, a couple Stanford students, and a few adults who were there with their sons/daughters.  Despite having done these many times, it was still great to meet people who are enthusiastic to learn about hep B and to help out.  Afterwards, one woman told me she was an immigration lawyer and asked to take a bunch of brochures to give out in her office.  Feels good to be spreading the Jade Ribbon influence! 

I have been thoroughly impressed with Team HBV Conference.  Alena at the Asian Liver Center has been doing a great job of putting this conference together, and I'm excited to see the results!  The China Team HBV chapters wil be arriving on Monday, and the ALC interns get to meet them at the first dinner in Palo Alto.  Team HBV Stanford will participate in the weekend events when the rest of the US chapters arrive.  Can't wait to meet the other chapter members!  The conference will be a great way to meet other supporters of the Jade Ribbon Campaign to exchange project ideas.  Hopefully Team HBV Stanford will come away with some good outreach ideas for this year and following years.  Hope to see some of you there! 

A few months ago, I contacted Vaden, Stanford's Health Center, to see how much their hepatitis B screenings would cost.  I was told by one of the directors it would be free, then was told by a nurse it would be $31, then told it would only be free to those who had never been vaccinated or had a family member wiht hepatitis B.  In short, their policies were confusing, and the staff all had different ideas about how to deal with patients who wanted hep B services.  On top of that, a friend of mine asked to get a screening at Vaden and apparently was only given the antibody test and not the antigen test.  This didn't tell her anything about her infection status.  Clearly, Vaden could use a little booster shot in their hep B awareness department. 

Recently, the program officer from the Asian Liver Center met with the clinical director at Vaden, and together they were able to come up with a great solution!  Luckily, the clinical director is very supportive of hepatitis B awareness and prevention among the API population at Stanford, and she agreed that Vaden should be offering reliable and FREE hep B screening to those at high-risk.  In the coming weeks, we will be working with Vadent to devise an automated system on their website so that students can schedule hep B screening appointments and get a risk-assessment at the same time.  If students fit the criteria for being high-risk (foreign-born, child of foreign-born parents, never been vaccinated, etc), then they automatically get a free screening.  Future plans include educating the physicians and nurses at Vaden as well. 

This comes at a great time for Team HBV Stanford as we start planning our own outreach events.  Now we can confidently tell students that they can get a quick and easy screening at NO COST (!) from their friendly neighborhood health center. 

Another blog about social marketing, an area that I think is pretty interesting and exciting. 

Seeing Red: Social Marketing Combines Profits and Philanthropy

  I wasn’t aware of this until I did some research for a Global Public Health class, but Gap Red is actually part of Project Red, a fundraising scheme launched by U2 singer Bono.  Participating companies sell Red products and donate up to 50% of the profits to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.  Gap is just one among many companies such as American Express, Nike’s footwear brand Converse, Apple, Armani, Starbucks, and others who are involved in this strategy to fuse consumerism and altruism.

The Red campaign is not a nonprofit or a charity but a business proposition that is supposed to be mutually beneficial for both sides of the relationship.  The co-founder of Project Red Bobby Shriver makes it very clear that companies’ involvement in Red is not about altruism but about profits.  The only way he could get companies to consider the endeavor was if it was sustainable and able to make money.  Some of the products to come out of Project Red include Gap’s red t-shirts, red American Express cards, Starbucks (Red) giftcards, and a plethora of other merchandise from various companies.

According to one source, the American shopper has helped build 33 testing and treatment centers in Rwanda, supplied medicine for more than 6,000 women to keep them from transmitting H.I.V. to their babies, and financed counseling and testing for thousands more patients.  The supporters of Red have high hopes for the endeavor, which is designed for sustainability.

Despite the good intentions, however, there are many doubts and drawbacks to Project Red.  Bono predicted that Red could contribute hundreds of millions to the Global Fund, and many were hopeful for huge payouts.  Instead, there was huge disappointment when only $18 million was raised after a year of Red’s launch.  The amount of money it took to market the campaign, on the other hand, is disproportionately large.  It is estimated that Gap, Apple, and Motorola spent nearly $100 million just on marketing for Red. Red’s contributions also do not necessarily go to the countries hardest hit by H.I.V. and AIDS; they go only to programs with proven success records.

What I wonder is if Project Red has done and will do more for AIDs than the financial numbers suggest.  This is after all a blog about social marketing, and Red is indeed much more than just a business strategy- it’s a fantastic marketing scheme that has given the AIDS issue celebrity status and has made the cause sexy.  Will all the buzz about Red encourage more people to donate time and/or money to AIDS outside of buying Red products?  More exposure can’t be a bad thing, right?

A big complaint coming from activists and nonprofit leaders is that this kind of marketing does more to promote the companies and the good deeds they are performing than the issue of AIDS. There are also concerns that businesses will crowd out philanthropic activity.  Consumerism will take the place of charity, and people will buy into the products more than the giving.  Because only a percentage of the profits (and oftentimes a very SMALL percentage) actually goes to the Global Fund, people’s purchases are not as beneficial as giving directly.

For me, I question how likely it is that consumerism will take the place of philanthropy.  I don’t have any numbers to back me up, but I can’t imagine that buying Red products has been a substitute for those who are already donors to the cause.  I can, however, see how it would pull smaller donors away from making direct donations to the philanthropic organization, but it’s also a way to get the support from people who wouldn’t ordinarily have given anything.  In terms of promoting AIDs, I think Project Red has definitely made a significant impact in giving visibility to the cause.  Whether this visibility and the message being sent are appropriate, I am a little less sure about.

Frazier, Mya. “Costly Red Campaign Reaps Meager $18 Million.” Advertising Age 5 Mar. 2007. 7 May 2009 <http://adage.com>.

“New fund-raising scheme fuses profit with philanthropy.”  Bulletin of the World Health Organization.  84.4 (2006).

Nixon, Ron. “Bottom Line for (Red).” New York Times 2 Feb. 2008. New York Times. 7 May 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com>.

This is related to a class assignment I had for a class on Global Public Health. What are your thoughts on social marketing in the nonprofit realm?

“Why can’t brotherhood be sold like soap?”

From a 1952 paper by G.D. Wiebe, this often-quoted question helped pave the way for an expansion in the marketing domain to include campaigns that were essentially for the social good and not purely for financial gain.   A professor from Northwestern University later coined the phrase social marketing to capture marketing’s new role in the social sphere.  Essentially, social marketing assumes that marketing techniques of the commercial business sector can be used to advance social causes.  Borrowing from the basics of market principles, social marketing applies the “four P’s” of product, price, place, and promotion to reach out to mass audiences about social causes.  For public health, this kind of strategy opened up so many doors.  Social marketing’s primary goal is to change behaviors, and advocacy for things like family planning, literacy, anti-smoking, seatbelts, and many other campaigns have definitely benefited from effective social marketing health programs.  Despite all the success stories, there often seems to be a disconnect between the aim of social marketing and the foundation on which it rests.  The theory is great: market a product well, whether it’s soap or brotherhood, and increase consumption.  In practice however, advancing social causes through a commercial business avenue is extremely difficult, and the public health implementers that need to use social marketing have a huge disadvantage compared to the private sector that employs the same marketing principles.

While I am generally very optimistic about the potential for social marketing in public health, I also realize how impossible things can seem on the ground.  I work for a nonprofit called the Asian Liver Center which addresses the high incidence of hepatitis B in the Asian Pacific Islander population, and it is an uphill battle to make our “cause” stand out above all the others.  We work at the grassroots level most of the time, and like most nonprofits, funding is a huge issue.  While mass media blitzes and commercial advertisement for hepatitis B awareness might be extremely powerful in Asia, where most of the hepatitis B cases are, there is not enough money for it first of all and little support from the community and from the media secondly.  There is often little government support for hepatitis B awareness and prevention efforts in the countries that need it the most.  The media is not likely to donate media placements for a cause that isn’t “popular.”  It is a very circular dilemma.  We need to “market” our cause to raise awareness, but it’s so difficult to market without that support system and awareness in place already.  I often feel that health marketing campaigns can only be successful if there is already a general level of awareness surrounding the issue, and how can you accomplish that at the grassroots level and without much money?

Partnership for Drug-Free America took 30 years of ongoing, committed efforts on the part of numerous public and private organizations to become the high profile, effective campaign it is today.  Cardiovascular risk reduction programs have shown that it takes up to ten years for new ideas and practices to diffuse and produce measurable social changes.  For this year’s Earth Day, I noticed significantly more involvement from corporations.  Every business used the event to sell their green products or to market how environmentally friendly they were.  An article from greenbiz.com talked about the phenomenon: http://www.greenbiz.com/feature/2009/04/22/the-selling-of-earth-day.  Earth Day seems to have just exploded this year, even though it was launched some 40 years ago and has been steadily spreading the environmental call each year.

While social marketing might be based on techniques from the commercial sector, it seems like there are significant barriers that prevent public health promoters from getting the full advantage of commercial marketing.  In future blogs, I hope to explore more of the good and the bad in social marketing, and expect to see more about hepatitis B.

References:
Chapter 13: Global Health Communications, Social Marketing, and Emerging Communication Technologies.  In Markle, et al. Understanding Global Public Health

Walsh, Diana C., et al.  “Social Marketing for Public Health.” Health Affairs Summer 1993.

A research project I am pursuing this year is to asses knowledge of hepatitis B among the Stanford student community. 

The goal is to assess and improve hepatitis B virus (HBV) knowledge among university students, particularly those who are Asian Pacific Islander (API).  Through pre- and post-intervention surveys, the study will assess the effectiveness of awareness campaigns by assessing knowledge levels and health-seeking behavior by participants of the surveys.  Many API students are at high-risk for hepatitis B, and the study will provide data on the incidence rate of hepatitis B within a younger generation of API. 

One demographic that has been poorly documented for hepatitis B knowledge is the college student group.  It is crucial to address this population for a number of reasons.  For one, they are the future leaders in healthcare, policy, and law; what they know now will impact future perceptions and decisions.  College students are also sexually active, and knowledge of the facts and risks associated with hepatitis B contributes to sexual health and general well-being.  Furthermore, the current group of students is among the last to have been born before the United States mandated hepatitis B vaccinations at birth (CDC).  Mother to child transmission of HBV at birth is the most common mode of transmission among API, so there is the risk that many API children born in the U.S. were infected at birth before they had a chance to be vaccinated.  Currently, there are no studies in the US that assess HBV knowledge within the student demographic.  In order to develop effective educational campaigns directed towards this population, it is important to determine knowledge levels and information sources. 

Check back for more updates on the development of this research project! 

This is Team HBV Stanford's first year, and we're all excited to bring the Jade Ribbon Campaign to Stanford University! 

A briefing on Team HBV Stanford:

Team HBV’s goal is to create a strong, unified community at Stanford that will promote, support, and further efforts to eradicate hepatitis B. Team HBV hopes to raise awareness of the disproportionately high incidence of hepatitis B and liver cancer among Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs) worldwide and hopes to create programming that will address the disparity.

Some of the activities we hope to host include:

- Educational presentations about hepatitis B and the efforts to eliminate this public health risk

- Active outreach to at-risk communities through collaborations with other student groups. Examples include speaking at general meetings to encourage hepatitis B testing and vaccination.

- Participation in activities fairs for students and the general community to spread awareness about hepatitis B and to garner support for the cause.

- Participation in the annual national Team HBV conference held by the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University.

- Host community screenings to offer an opportunity for students at Stanford to protect themselves from hepatitis B.  Screenings will be conducted by the Asian Liver Center at Stanford and Stanford Hospitals and Clinics, working to ensure that all University’s policies and best practices are followed.

- Participation in volunteer events around the Bay Area that target hepatitis B awareness. Examples include the Asian Liver Center outreach booth at community festivals or the SF Hep B Free Campaign’s speakers bureau.

- Launching a hepatitis B awareness week at Stanford.

- Conducting surveys to assess awareness and attitudes towards hepatitis B, working to ensure that all University’s policies and best practices are followed.

- outreach and mentorship with high school students to encourage youth involvement in the fight against hepatitis B

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Our first task will be to fundraise for our group, so please help us win $2000 from East Villagers by joining our organization and donating your points to us! 

Team HBV Stanford is getting excited for the 1st Annual Team HBV Conference!  Great job Jen and Alena at our meeting yesterday. 

This is my first blog on East Villagers, and I'm excited to connect with people who want to learn more about hepatitis B and/or are doing something to spread hepatitis B awareness!

One of the organizations I am a part of is Team HBV: Stanford University.  Please join and support us! 

Team HBV Stanford members:
Joy Z , Dylan K, Nicole T, Jen W, Elizabeth Y, and Michelle K. 

1..2..3..H..B..V..Team!!