Response to “Public Awareness” articles

The article Stop Raising Awarenesss Already talks about the effectiveness of public campaigns, as well as their risks and the mistakes they make. The article highlights various mistakes made in the process. The article addresses the issues in many points. One of the most prominent point is “When Awareness Campaigns reach the Wrong Audience.” This point highlights the idea that a campaign must know their audience. Knowing one’s audience can help cater to them and fulfill the point of view each one of them has. The audience you should avoid is: “an audience that is unsympathetic to the campaign’s goals or one that might already be convinced of its goals.” An audience that views things differently from you can lead to some backlash or a lack of support for the goal you wish to pursue.

Speaking of backlash, the article addresses that as well. However, they address the backlash your awareness can create. The article explains that “When issues are complicated by partisan politics, for example, the message may be vulnerable to backlash and slow down or halt progress on an issue.” Pushing your point across just to gain profit is not an ideal way of making your campaign effective. Neither is advocating something that can be misunderstood. This was the case for the HPV vaccine. People were trying to get others vaccinated to catch up with a person who made the vaccine much faster, and it cost them as a whole. People began to mistrust or speculate on the motives behind the vaccine.

A link to the article.

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