Juul Fools and Kill Bills: Deconstructing Health Legislation

June 12, 2019 Most of us remember the classic School House Rock, “I’m just a bill, yes I’m only a bill and I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill…” but maybe we need a new version that talks about how a bill is killed with a thousand paper cuts painfully sliced into vapid, ineffective nothingness by industry goodwashing yet still SOUNDS like a reasonable regulatory response? Such … [Read more...]

Media Literacy: 50 Talking Points for 50 Shades of Grey

Feb. 13, 2015 Talk about Angry Birds. Parents have been swept into the viral vortex of a gazillion ambient ads piling on to the relentless hype of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie opening today.From sex toys adjacent to kids' toothbrushes at Target (a big box blunder could be just a merchandising mistake, but shrugging it off  in "you do you" mode is a larger corporate gaffe, … [Read more...]

Coke and McDonalds Lose Super Bowl with Parents

Aug. 17, 2016 Update Bravo to Britain, showcasing athletes sponsored by healthy food instead of junk! See? Sponsorship doesn't have to be the domain of the duplicitous duo of junk food advertisers, Coke and McDonalds! Yep, they're sucking up global mindshare yet again...This time targeting Latinos with duplicitous fervor, using emotional hooks parlayed into social … [Read more...]

Now Pouring: Soda Pledges, Politics & Public Health

Nov. 7, 2014 Election Outcome: Historic passage and precedent of  Berkeley vote on soda tax; synopsis article via SF Gate on why Berkeley passed a soda tax and SF didn't. Oct. 8, 2014 Update: NYTimes' Mark Bittman and Mother Jones both weigh in on the politics of the soda tax, which has vaulted to $9.1 million "Big Soda" (ABA) spending combined to try to crush the measure in SF … [Read more...]

Healthvana: Peace of Mind In The Dating App Era?

Oct. 30, 2014 Update! With 'healthy Halloween' tweets on Twitter, I checked back on my own post here to see why it's getting a spike in 'retweet' circulation, and now see there's been huge press lately from Good Morning America to NPR, VentureBeat and beyond this fall, so congrats to Healthvana for media making a difference in public health! (An entire HealthBeat Conference … [Read more...]