Comments on: Let’s Talk Images: Health = Success?

By: igglanova

igglanova — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:36:10 +0000

Being Canadian, my first impression was that this was a government poster celebrating the health care system – until, obviously, I read a little more closely and was creeped out thoroughly by the concept of health insurance as a product with customers to rope in via advertising. I found it interesting that my first reading changed the context of the tag line significantly for me, so I’ll try to explore that, if you all don’t mind.

Due to my own personal history, I don’t actually take umbrage to statements like ‘When I have my health, I can do anything.’ While this line is obviously an oversimplification and fairly propagandistic, there is a deeper truth to it – a commitment to public health enables the public. An ailing public will also suffer in terms of performance and the advancement of knowledge, science, technology, what have you. As far as potentially ableist implications go…if we refuse to acknowledge that various disabilities actually do, you know, hinder the people who have them, then we run the risk of encouraging a dispiriting super-crip mentality that shifts the blame for disabled people’s ‘shortcomings’ onto the individuals rather than the ailments themselves, or an unaccomodating society. As awesome and competent as many PWD are, there is no denying that their lives would be easier if they had the privilege of being able-bodied – which then should theoretically translate into an even greater capacity to achieve and find fulfillment.

As I stated previously, my impression of the ad changed dramatically once I realized that it had a product to sell, rather than simply an agenda to enforce. (Even that is kind of fucked up, but you’re getting the stream-of-consciousness version of my opinion on this rather than something fully formed; lucky you! ) What strikes me, now, is a sinister threat in the subtext, that your life will be hamstrung and unfulfilling if you do not purchase this product. Or, as BeckySharper put it, ‘WHEN I DON’T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE, I RISK LOSING MY HEALTH AND LIVELIHOOD.’ Both the spoken and unspoken messages, then, work together in a way that strikes me as deeply cynical and manipulative.

So, in a nutshell – if I encountered this ad in Ontario, I would be significantly less creeped out by it than if I’d encountered it in Boston. Context is everything, and all that jazz.

By: Mackey

Mackey — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:18:25 +0000

isn’t there also a class element to this as well – personal success (socially defined) + liveliehood + health insurance = wellbeing and happiness.. those that don’t have health insurance well, you’re stuck..

as an aside, I’m glad for socialised medicine where I live.. and greatful for not having to see such advertising. At least in Australian the private health insurance companies, for the most part, don’t hide their class bias.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:36:51 +0000

I think a more accurate slogan, which would speak directly to the message the poster’s trying to get across is: WHEN I DON’T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE, I RISK LOSING MY HEALTH AND LIVELIHOOD.

Maybe they could use that instead? Or is that just restating the obvious?

By: annajcook

annajcook — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:23:57 +0000

@Sara Thanks for the caption! I've added it to the original post. And you've reminded me to make sure I include a verbal description moving forward. scribbles note to self

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:52:50 +0000

Now here’s my 2 cents:

It’s phrased in the first person, which makes it sound like a motivational mantra this woman tells herself, rather than an assertion from outside that she has no other barriers, or that “health” is her only conceivable route to success. As such, it doesn’t strike me as particularly exemplary of ableism or of ignoring intersecting devalued identities.

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:48:35 +0000

Here’s a caption:

The image depicts a Black woman wearing business-like attire against a city backdrop. Text above her head reads “When I have my health, I can do anything.” The text at the bottom reveals that it is an ad for Boston Medical Center’s HealthNet Plan, which is apparently part of Massachusetts’ affordable health insurance system.

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:05:13 +0000

This seems to me to be a somewhat thoughtlessly phrased play on the old “if you have your health, you have everything” kind of truism. It’s puffery, not to be taken literally. My question about the poster is how effective it will be in reaching its target audience. I might have cut right to the chase and made it clear that this is a way to get health insurance if you don’t have it. To the extent that it looks like an ad for any commercial insurance plan, it will fail.

Since ads are by nature designed to sell things, they’re based on the premise that the consumer is lacking something that the advertiser can supply. That subtext is one that can wear away at us, leading us to think that we are fundamentally flawed in infinite ways. So to me the question is how do we use ads to get information that might be useful to us without absorbing the underlying message of inadequacy.