The Tip Jar – 3/9/07

Let’s see what we find in the Tip Jar this week, shall we?

• Suzanne Hawkes gives a great overview of the different types of approaches that can be used to bring about social change. She divides it out into direct service, social marketing/education, business/consumerism, policy advocacy (i.e., government and corporate), and politics (i.e., via elections). While I generally think about it in terms of education vs. persuasion vs. coercion, Suzanne’s more detailed breakdown would be useful in thinking about how to use each approach within a particular campaign.

• When your audience has a low literacy level, the use of pictures becomes critical in your print communications. The National Institute for Literacy brought in guest speakers Len and Ceci Doak and Dr. Peter Houts to lead a e-mail-based discussion on Using Pictures in Health Education on its Health and Literacy Discussion List. The discussion is rich with information on everything from where to find free health-related clip art to why to draw stick figures with thicker lines in Africa (very thin people are thought to have AIDS) and how to do your own photo shoots. (via Medical Writing Blog)

• Yet another ad has been pulled in response to criticism from advocacy groups. Dolce & Gabbana’s ad showing a bare-chested man pinning a woman down by her wrists while other men look on elicited condemnation from Amnesty International, the National Organization for Women and others for its implied depiction of violence. High fashion advertisers have already gone so far in pushing the lines of acceptability, they now seem to feel they have to cross the line to stay cutting-edge.

• Will a machine be able to do a better job at predicting intentions to perform a behavior than we’ve been able to glean from self-reported data?

• Those who disparage Second Life users as pasty chair jockeys in their first life may be surprised to find out about Moriash Moreau‘s contraption that lets him physically walk around the virtual world on his actual feet:
  

  Moreau took a second-hand treadmill (surplus from a fitness no-longer-enthusiast), a second hand USB keypad, and assorted wiring and contact switches, and wired up an input device where he could make his avatar walk by, well actually walking, using some press buttons to steer (his blog contains all the construction details.) Moreau performs regular walks around Second Life, exploring on foot, but it doesn’t stop just there.

  Moreau has found a way to contribute to others. Moreau is going to walk in the Second Life Relay for Life this year. His avatar is going to walk the course, and Moreau will be doing all the leg-work. Literally.

  It certainly helps to be a technogeek when you have an idea like this and can just take out the old tools and cobble it together. I can see something like this taking off as SL becomes voice enabled, when someone in Los Angeles can exercise alongside a friend in London and carry on a chat while doing so.

• Don’t worry about finding the influential people when trying to bring about social change, but rather look for the easily influenced people, says Duncan Watts about the commonly accepted model of influencers outlined by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point.

• Hospitals are producing professional-looking TV health news segments that are being used as-is by local news programs without any disclosure of the source of the material. This is not a new development in the field of PR, but it seems to be more common now among hospitals.
  

  It’s the product of a marriage of the hospitals’ desperate need to compete for lucrative lines of business in our current health system and of TV’s hunger for cheap and easy stories. In some cases the hospitals pay for airtime, a sponsorship, and in others, they don’t but still provide expertise and story ideas. Either way, the result is that too often the hospitals control the story. Viewers who think they are getting news are really getting a form of advertising. And critical stories—hospital infection rates, for example, or medical mistakes or poor care—tend not to be covered in such a cozy atmosphere. The public, which could use real health reporting these days, gets something far less than quality, arms-length journalism. (via Harvard World Health News)

  This is yet another indictment of the mainstream media’s “journalistic standards.”

• Just a warning… I received an e-mail today that started:
  

  Hi,
  I’m Dr Brown Mcknight, born in Tetax,live in England.I love making Friends from all around the world, most especially honest individuals.I work in my organisation as a Youth director and also for the U.N.H.C.R as Staff in the refugee department, and also served the World vision as director to Canada two years ago.. I Would love to meet you in person to know how best we can uplift the plight of children and youths in the less developed countries such as Africa and Asia and see how best we can make the world a better place to live in.

  It is my pleasure to tell you that there is a youth Conference coming up soon both in the United State and Spain respectively. .Theme-“anti-terrorism and child labour”.This conferences are Free, the Sponsors will be responsible for your air ticket, both in the United State and Spain and the Conference committee will also fax a Letter to the America embassy within your country,so do not worry about Visa, This conference is sponsored annually by UNICEF,USAID, WHO,UNESCO, the United Nations Security Council and First Ladies of Presidents of United Nations…

  It sounded somewhat suspicious but also slightly plausible — I often receive strange sounding but legitimate e-mails from people in other countries whose first language is not English (though I have no idea where “Tetax” is). I did a search on the organization, called the “Global Youth Centre,” and found out that this is a scam along the lines of the Nigerian 419 spam. Apparently people who sign up for the nonexistent conference are directed to send money via Western Union for the hotel. Just wanted to make sure you all are aware of this latest spam iteration, which I hadn’t seen before.

• Finally, your week would not be complete without considering the Top Ten Ads with People Dressed Up as Food. There, now you’re ready for the weekend. Have a good one!

Photo Credit: Kaija