When the MillerGeer & Associates PR agency got the assignment to light a fire under the subject of obesity for the Center for Surgical Treatment of Obesity it knew it had to put a human face on the life-threatening condition.
Although obesity (defined as being more than 100 pounds overweight) causes more than 250,000 deaths each year and affects more than 4 million in the U.S., awareness on treatment has been extremely low. "There wasn't a whole lot known about the [gastric bypass operation], a 20-year-old procedure for obese people," said Jay Geer, president of the Cerritos, Calif.-based agency.
To drive awareness of the surgical options available for seriously overweight people, specifically positioning the "Fobi Pouch" procedure (developed by Dr. Mal Fobi) and trigger patient referrals to the Bellflower, Calif.-based center, MillerGeer launched a media relations push in June 1996 that used patients as hooks. The PR campaign cost $77,000 (fully utilized) and marked the first time the center had ever used a PR agency.
'New Life' Media Hook
The patient strategy focused on how the Fobi Pouch surgery would give these patients new life and new hope and resulted in more than 250 broadcast interviews, including CNN, "Prime Time Live," "Extra," "Hard Copy," and the "Jerry Springer Show," as well as numerous regional programs. And the campaign led to more than 100 print placements in newspapers like the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. The media coverage generated more than 25 million impressions at the first year mark and close to 50 million impressions after 18 months, according to Geer.
The media attention generated more than 10,000 patient inquiries during the campaign, averaging more than 1,000 calls per month to the center. Compared to its advertising campaign (which involved a $250,000 television/newspaper regional buy), the PR effort yielded two-thirds more leads. And surgical volume went from 15 procedures per month to more than 25.
Built-in Drama
The center identified patients who could best convey to the media the plight of being severely overweight. In 1996 and 1997, four patients with exceptional stories were given pro bono surgeries. Starting with a 547-pound Los Angeles woman who wanted "her life back" and concluding with a 600-pound former fisherman who was "capsized by obesity," the stories provided reporters with unique insider perspectives on not only what it means to be obese, but how the surgery offered these people new slimmer, trimmer bodies they didn't think were possible.
Miller coordinated media interviews with the center that provided reporters full access to these patients as well as the surgeries they would undergo. TV crews captured these patients leaving their homes for the first time and reporters were able to ask intimate questions about their health, diet and overall lifestyle.
Reversing Stereotypes
The patient approach also served to reverse some long-held stigmas about obesity: these people eat too much and need to go on a diet. The campaign conveyed that sometimes obesity is caused by a genetic condition, and in the case of the Fobi patients several diets were attempted with unsuccessful results.
The campaign also had to raise awareness in the medical community about obesity treatment options, according to Lieu Nguyen, marketing coordinator for the center. "Many family doctors do not know how to treat their severely obese patients or where to send them." Last year, Dr. Fobi went to more than 10 conferences to educate physicians on obesity. There are only a handful of physicians that specialize in treating this high-risk condition; the American Society of Bariatric Surgery has about 100 members, according to Geer.
Snowball Effect
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Campaign Tools
The MillerGeer team, which included Jay Geer, president Geoge Pappas, account supervisor and Leona Christenson, account coordinator, used classic PR to feed a national media appetite for information about obesity. The campaign used:
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After the first story came out about the obese woman in Los Angeles, the coverage gave a voice to the embarrassing condition that has many of the campaign's target confined to their homes. One of the pro bono surgery cases involving a 586-pound Whittier, Calif. man on an oxygen tank was inspired by an earlier pro bono case involving 557-pound Las Vegas Man who had been housebound for more than five years.
The campaign also capitalized on other high-profile overweight stories like the Phen-Fen scare and movies that dealt with the topic, namely Eddie Murphy's "The Nutty Professor" and Stephen King's "Thinner" films. (Miller, Jay Geer, 562/467-2020; Obesity Center, Lieu Nguyen, 562/866-6501)