Vardeman-Winter, J. & Tindall, N. T. J. (2010). “If it’s a woman’s issue, I pay attention to it”: Gendered and intersectional complications in The Heart Truth media campaign. PRism 7(4): http://www.prismjournal.org 1 “If it’s a woman’s issue, I pay attention to it”: Gendered and intersectional complications in The Heart Truth media campaign Jennifer Vardeman-Winter, University of Houston Natalie T.J. Tindall, Georgia State University Abstract This cultural study explores the nexus of cultural studies, knowledge production of communication campaigns, and intersecting identities to offer insight on how to better design meaningful campaigns for publics. This research examines how women understand, perceive, and interpret a heart health communication campaign. Fifty-nine women from various racial, ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds were interviewed. Women appreciated and critiqued the campaign according to role-fulfilment as family and community information-givers, tensions about race and gender representations, hegemonic health discourse, and communities’ lived and everyday barriers. The study highlights the limitations of traditional campaign segmentation approaches, demonstrates the need for exploring cultural meaning-making at the beginning of campaign development, and stresses the importance of studying intersectionality of identities in mediated environments. Introduction Scholars have explored reasons why public relations campaigns often fall short of effectively communicating prevention behaviours (see Snyder, 2001). This paper suggests that misunderstandings of the cultural groups and their lived identities by the campaign producers lie at the heart of the “misses” in health campaigns (Dutta, 2007; Lupton, 1994). This cultural study explored how consumers of a public health campaign perceived their identities to be linked to the messages sent to them about a health risk. This paper contributes to the broader field of public relations by: (a) highlighting the hegemony of national health campaigns, (b) emphasising the limitations of traditional campaign segmentation approaches; (c) demonstrating the need for exploring cultural meaning at the beginning of campaign development; and (d) stressing the importance of studying intersectionality of identities in mediated environments. Context of the study According to the American Heart Association (2007), cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in women in most of the developed world, and kills over 500,000 American women. Black/African American women have the highest mortality rate from CVD, and Latinas suffer at increased rates from contributors to heart disease (National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute, n.d.b). Despite the prevalence of CVD among US women, research about women’s awareness of CVD risks reveals gaps in knowledge about CVD (Robertson, 2001). The Heart Truth campaign The US NHLBI launched The Heart Truth in 2002 to educate women “that heart disease is the #1 killer of American women” (NHLBI, n.d.a). A sub-campaign initiative was launched in 2005 for women of racial minorities (n.d.b.). The campaign’s overall goal is to “give women a personal and urgent wakeup call about their risk of heart disease” (NHLBI, n.d.c). A red dress is the “national symbol for women and heart disease awareness,” which NHLBI claims “links a woman’s focus of her ‘outer self’ to the need to also focus on her ‘inner self’, especially her heart health,” (NHLBI, n.d.a) (see Figure 1, below, for a public service announcement from the campaign). The campaign has downloadable material on its website and enacts myriad special events in major cities.