A PR Nightmare

One of my hobbies is makeup. In order to keep on top of makeup news, new products and what not, I am part of a subreddit on the popular site Reddit called MakeupAddiction. One of the recent things that has been all over this subreddit has been the drama and public relations nightmare surrounding a brand called Lime Crime.

This is a smaller makeup brand that not everyone has heard of but it was very infamous on MakeupAddiction. The owner of this brand has had a dark history of shady business practices but until recently it had been mostly forgotten. In the past month though, it came to light that there was a major security breach in their site that caused customer credit card information to be stolen. There were several incidents of this happening and later on it was made known that Lime Crime had been aware of this breach for a few months. Most people understood that security breaches can happen but what made this worse is how the owner of Lime Crime handled the situation. 

It basically became a PR nightmare. Everything that should have happened didn't and everything that shouldn't have happened did. They denied the accusation for a long time, when they finally did have to, they didn't offer an apology to those affected and tried to shift the blame elsewhere. They also, as usual tried to cover up the problem by deleting negative comments about the situation from their social media age. Regardless of what they did, it was definitely still out there. I did a search of the hot posts about Lime Crime in MakeupAddiction, and these were 3 our of the top 4. 

What Lime Crime should have done was first issue some "first-level" changes such as issuing out an apology to all of their customers and taking responsibility for what had happened. This would have made a majority of their customers much more understanding and prevented their image from getting so tarnished. "Second-level" changes could have easily come next where they shut down their site sooner and looked into the issue. These two things would have diffused the situation immensely and would not have made any impact on the companies values. 

Anti-Vaccine PSA

We have all heard about the anti-vaccination movement and more recently how there was a measles breakout in Disneyland of all places because of it. While most of us agree that this is completely ridiculous and that there is no reason to not vaccinate, it is still a big issue.

Recently, Jimmy Kimmel had a segment of his show dedicated to talking about the anti-vaccination movement. This was a great example of entertainment-education. The skit was funny as he joked around about it and equivocated not vaccinating your child to letting them smoking cigarettes. He understands that no one is going to take medical advice from a talk show host even though they did take it from forwarded emails and Jenny McCarthy, but he has real doctors come onto his show to give a public service announcement.

This skit was pretty brilliant to me. Jimmy mentions how the anti-vaccination movement is pretty big in Los Angeles right now which is where his show is filmed. His show is very big in the US and probably pretty big in LA as well. Therefore, it is certain that people who believe in anti-vaccinations as well as people who know someone who believes in it will be watching. His videos tend to go viral as well, with this one having nearly 4.5 million views on YouTube right now. Chances are, this is a message that will spread. Anti-vaccinators are going to avoid the typical places that you would see this message, but they are not expecting it on a talk show, therefore it's a pretty great, unsuspected way to get the word out there.

What makes effective health communication?

I love my dad to pieces, but he cannot quit smoking for anything. He has been smoking since he was in his early teens and he is 62 now. That is a long habit to quit. He has tried to quit countless times and has been successful countless times until something puts him back onto them.He has tried pretty much all the methods and even though his family begs him to, it can't be done permanently.

What makes matters worse though is the way his doctor communicates with him about this. My dad is from a small town and the hospital there isn't too large. He has been seeing the same doctor for years and years. His doctor communicates in a doctor-centered style rather than patient centered. You have to know. My dad is a stubborn man. He does not enjoy being told what to do by anyone, even it is in his best interest. When his doctor tells him that he HAS to quit cigarettes every time he goes in and continues to lecture on about the risks of cigarettes to him, my dad won't listen. It is so bad that my dad will even avoid the doctor because he knows that he will just get a lecture about quitting. Of course the doctor just has the best interest of my dad in mind here, but since my dad has been smoking for over 40 years, he has probably heard it all multiple times. It's not like he doesn't know that it will kill him. 

What my dad needs is someone who is more patient-centered in their style of heath communication. He needs someone who will ask him open ended questions and that will let him take the reigns of the conversation. My dad has to decide on his own that he wishes to quit smoking in order for it to actually happen. Hopefully, he will find this one day or his doctor will learn to change his style, because all he is doing right now is scaring a man off from seeing a doctor even if he's in need. 

What Makes a Bad Lip Reading So Funny?

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! If you're like me that you're about to start prepping for your Super Bowl party. While I was thinking about all things football related today, I happened to remember the new version of NFL Bad Lip Readings that came out recently. I love these video's, they so such a good job "intepreting" what these NFL players must be saying. I crack up every time I see them.

But what makes this video so good? Is it just that they make it seem like the players are speaking nonsense? No, it is the non-verbal communication that the players are using that emphasize the new words. Alone, the words they add would just be nonsense.

 First off, at :10 in, the player looks like he is creating illustrators with his body to emphasize something. He also seems pumped up. This add's so much more enthusiasm when he says "we gotta eat the breakfast".

At 1:04 in, the reporter and the coach are using regulators to control the conversation, we see the reporter move the microphone over to the coach to signal that it is his turn to speak and answer her question. He says "well friends of mine know that I don't like you" and he walks away. This regulator makes it seem as if he is walking away to end the conversation and again, emphasizes the words that he just spoke.

The words that are added, while funny, are only hilarious when we take into account the non-verbal language the players are using. It really show's how much of a part non-verbal communication adds to our messages.