It probably isn’t a Black History Month initiative, but TBWA\WorldHealth created #BlackHealthNow to expose the Black experience with medical professionals. Um, this is not a new phenomenon—it’s pretty common knowledge among the culturally competent. The discrimination that Blacks face in healthcare is similar to the biased bullshit presented in adland. White advertising agencies like TBWA\WorldHealth, incidentally, are shining examples of unhealthy environments for Blacks.
#BlackHealthNow Reveals Painful and Frustrating Experiences With Medical Professionals
TBWA\WorldHealth employees share their stories of bias in treatment
By Mary Emily O'Hara
The statistics are unmistakable. Black women are three times more likely to die from complications in pregnancy than white women. And according to the Office of Minority Health at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, black Americans are more likely to die from heart diseases, stroke, cancer, asthma, influenza and pneumonia, diabetes and HIV/AIDS than white Americans.
Pinning down all the factors behind such heartbreaking stats is far from easy, but one problem certainly seems to be playing a role in perpetuating the racial imbalance: Black patients say they aren’t being listened to.
Watch the intimate, emotional stories shared by black employees at TBWA\WorldHealth for the new campaign #BlackHealthNow, and it becomes clear: The medical profession may be plagued by unconscious bias that leads doctors and nurses to treat black patients differently—sometimes with deadly results.
The first few videos for the project feature TBWA\WorldHealth staffers Zaira Zafra, Bianca Williams and Trevor Gilchrist. Zafra shares a horror story of being pressured to have a hysterectomy—while pregnant—instead of removing uterine fibroids through laparoscopy. Williams and Gilchrist recall the deaths of their grandmothers and ways they observed their mistreatment.
The campaign is not tied to any brands, but stands alone as a public health initiative that encourages people to share their own stories on social media using the hashtag #BlackHealthNow. TBWA\WorldHealth has a unique direct line to the medical and pharmaceutical industries by virtue of its client base, and the team hopes to potentially partner with a medical association to scale up.
The campaign could grow in a more tech-centered direction as well. Bryan Gaffin, ecd at TBWA\WorldHealth’s Wildtype, told Adweek he’d like to see some sort of interactive database of approved doctors, or perhaps a ‘black health advocate’ badge that can be added to existing medical sites like ZocDoc.
#BlackHealthNow isn’t just about revealing personal trauma. It’s about empowering black patients as well as informing the medical establishment of an overarching problem. To help people act as their own medical advocates, Holloway and Geer published a list of10 questions everyone should ask their doctor, under the mantra, “Never feel embarrassed to ask for the health care you deserve.”
It’s an approach that Gilchrist knows well. In his video for #BlackHealthNow, he recalled, “When my grandmother was in the hospital the first and second time, I remember doctors talking to her as if she was a child.”
The experience left him with feeling committed to making sure no one else in his family experienced that level of disrespectful treatment.
“When my mother went to the hospital for kidney issues, I decided in that moment I wasn’t going to let what happened to my grandmother happen to my mom,” Gilchrist said. “I would be the person asking those questions. I made it a point to not be silent.”
