Re: BMJ article
Jane Teather <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.infodesign.general |
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| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Having read the report in full, I was struck by one of the case studies. One woman (whose baby, sadly, died of severe malnutrition and pneumonia) stated that she had read the label and understood that the creamer was not for use instead of breast milk (so illiteracy was not the problem here), but she noted that the can’s label showed a mother bear with baby, and that people in her village consider this an acceptable infant food. It has been shown in several contexts with healthcare information that people will go to what might seem extraordinary lengths to fit new information into the model they have formed and with which they feel at least partially comfortable. So the combination of the logo and her cultural background was powerful enough to override any disclaimers, and her decision made sense to her. As Conrad pointed out, the reproduction of the label in the journal is very poor (a low-res scan), so it is difficult to study the whole thing. As far as I can see, the bottle-with-cross-through-it is not given prominence; and there appears to be a lot of ‘nutritional’ information implying that this substance is some kind of valuable component of a good diet. But the logo is easily visible, and how very strange it is (a bear holding a baby bear in a vaguely human-like ‘nursing’ position; I don’t think we need to get too pedantic about exactly where mummy bear’s nipples might be). If you were to show it, by itself, to any group of people in any culture, I reckon the vast majority would guess that this is a product for babies and possibly children. If they wanted to show an anthropomorphic bear, why not show one holding a coffee mug? Gunnar said: > a disclaimer is good evidence that there has been a claim that needs dissing. > Quite. Why they chose this logo is a mystery, but someone must have felt uneasy. Regards Jane _______________________________ Jane Teather JET Documentation Services 54A Ferme Park Road London N4 4ED tel: +44 (0) 20 8348 9213 mobile: +44 7967 366 252 [email protected] Fellow of the Communication Research Institute http://www.communication.org.au ___________________________________________________________________ Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe For all Information Design matters: http://InformationDesign.org Problems? Write to: [email protected] ___________________________________________________________________