WSU gets $3.8 million health communication grant
By Amy Geiszler-Jones
First there were the "Take it Outside" ads to help cut children’s exposure to second-hand smoke. Then there were the "Grow up with Me" ads, asking adults to find ways to connect with children.
Now the Kansas Health Foundation plans to launch an extension of those campaigns focusing on adult involvement in children’s lives. To help with its next campaign, the major philanthropic organization located in Wichita is calling on WSU’s academic expertise and resources.
In late March the Kansas Health Foun- dation announced it was giving a $3.8 million grant to WSU and Sullivan Higdon & Sink, the largest, full-service advertising agency in Kansas, to develop and manage its next campaign. SHS worked on the previous two Emmy Award-winning campaigns for the foundation.
"Our media campaigns are designed to increase the public’s attention about the importance of adult involvement in children’s lives, as a way to improve the health and well-being of the children in our state," said WSU alumna Marni Vliet, president and CEO of the foundation. "These partners provide wonderful examples of people and institutions who are committed to finding new and innovative ways to make this a healthier state for everyone."
The Kansas Health Foundation’s vision for its children’s health initiative is that in 20 years, Kansas will be the best state in the nation to raise a child, said foundation program director Cara Kliewer.
Philip Gaunt, director of both WSU’s Elliott School of Communication and its Interdisciplinary Communication Research Institute, will be the project manager for the new campaign.
The research institute that Gaunt founded in 1995 has specialized in community and health-related communication research, completing projects for clients including the Centers for Disease Control, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and WSU’s College of Health Professions.
Gaunt brings to the project a background in research and the ability to do concept testing all over Kansas with WSU’s sophisticated new Mobile Automated Response Testing Instrument, known as MARTI.
"We’ll review the relevant literature and synthesize what’s been done in the field already," Gaunt said.
From now until May, SHS, WSU and the Kansas Health Foundation will be conducting focus groups, using WSU’s response lab and in-depth interviews to "create the visual and verbal vocabulary that will reach the audience we wish to reach," Gaunt said.
They’ll test various images, symbols, sounds, graphics and words on these groups to develop a message for increasing positive adult involvement in children’s lives. They’ll also create a smaller, related campaign on a more specific public health issue.
