SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME
Dougall and Hennink-Kaminski, who together count more than 30 years of experience in public relations and marketing, knew changing audience behaviors meant developing a social marketing campaign. A social marketing campaign uses commercial marketing techniques to influence the behavior of a target audience. Examples of such campaigns include the “Click It or Ticket” campaign to increase seat belt usage and the “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” campaign to stop drunk driving.
Columbia, and Marilyn Barr, founder and executive director of the center. PURPLE is an acronym that describes the characteristics of normal infant crying. The crying Peaks at two to three months of age and ends at four to five months; is Unexpected; Resists soothing; the infant appears to be in Pain; it is usually Long, lasting two to five hours; and occurs more frequently in the Evening. The word “Period” indicates that this pattern of crying is temporary. »
For this project, the campaign involves changing attitudes and behaviors toward infant crying. Most people know that shaking a baby is not okay, Hennink-Kaminski said. “This campaign is not about the dangers of shaking, but the normalcy of inconsolable infant crying in the early months of life.” Dougall and Hennink-Kaminski had a message to start with – “The Period of PURPLE Crying” – the National Center for Shaken Baby Syndrome’s prevention campaign for new parents. “The Period of PURPLE Crying” was developed by Ronald Barr, professor of pediatrics at the University of British
SUMMER 2008
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