MMH 740: In-Depth Analysis of a Health Promotion Campaign

and (3) directing the attention of journalists and public officials to policies and investments to prevent disease and injury and promote good health. This course will teach strategies and practical skills for designing and implementing communication campaigns. It will consist of lectures presented by the course director; guest lectures, including by specialists from the commercial sector with deep experience in achieving high levels of reach and engagement of target groups through social media; and class discussion of case studies of successful behavior change and policy advocacy campaigns. Each student will develop a written campaign proposal to tackle a behavior change or policy goal of their choosing.

Primary Learning Goals: 1. Students will gain insights into the development and use of health communication strategies to enhance health outcomes and reduce health disparities, locally and globally 2. Students will learn practical skills for designing, implementing, and tracking the progress of theory-based behavior change and policy advocacy campaigns, including:  Selecting campaign target groups.  Constructing persuasive messages.  Pretesting messages.  Building coalitions with like-minded organizations and individuals.  Securing pro bono commitments from marketing/advertising firms.  Mobilizing community partners.  Empowering citizens as campaign advocates.  Tracking campaign effectiveness. 3. Based on these learnings, and on the content of previous courses in the program, each student will develop a written campaign proposal to tackle a behavior change or policy goal of their choosing. This will serve as each student’s final product of the course. Several campaign proposals, selected by the instructor on the basis of their quality and the range of strategic approaches they represent, will be presented orally by their authors in the final session of the course.

Prerequisites: The course will build on the content of previous courses offered in the program. There are no formal pre-requisites

Credits: 4 Grading: Ordinal