Emotion and behaviour change comms - seems obvious now

Was it really before Christmas I last posted?! Scary how fast this year has gone, mainly because we've been so busy at our place (only a good thing).

But amongst all the running around to enter Meerkats into every Awards body going, I've been tearing my hair out thinking about the solution to solving briefs that I work on. You see these are predominantly behavior change briefs - anti-binge drinking and school food trust. I'm not saying brands have got it easier than the Government, but in terms of getting your heads around a business problem and coming up with a strategic plan of attack they do.

Crassly speaking, with a brand you can identify gaps in the market, break category conventions, do fun things with social media. Not so easy if you're telling 18 year olds who live for £2 Apple Sourz in their SU club to reconsider their options, or 11 year olds who despise their canteens to go it alone and let their mates go to Chick City.

Rachel Barry at Fallon spoke the other day about the 'spirit' of a brief as opposed to treating it like a skeleton that needs flesh adding to it (I think that's how it went anyway). And I have to say that really got me excited - especially when it's obvious that the briefs for Cadbury's or Sony Bravia had real spirit to them.

So what is the brief spirit for government comms?? The answer came to me when someone mentioned Richard Huntingdon's theory on emotion in advertising. Joy for Cadbury's, anger for Dove, shame for anti-smoking (clog campaign). Most current e.g. would be the emotion of fear in the Violence against women ad Kiera Knightly appeared in (for free). Truly amazing stuff.

Thinking about booze alone, I know I reconsider what my limits are most when I regret something I did the night before as opposed to the fickle 'I'll never drink again' ailing of a brutal hangover, or booze bruise. Shame. Regret. Remorse. Guilt. That's what makes me think LONGER TERM.

SFT is a bit harder, so suggestions are welcome! Like a brand whatever idea we come up with should have longevity - and that's the hardest part I suppose. What emotion have we previously run with? Well we told kids to 'Get Real' about what's in their junk food to encourage them to shift to their canteen - I guess that would be Shock. But now we need to move on to something closer to the canteen itself. Would emotions would that entail? I'm going cross eyed at this point so think it might not be the right way to approach it, but all the same think its a very interesting concept.