You are sweet enough
The Role of Artists in Promoting Healthy Habits
Artists and Health Promotion
On 1st January 2022, popular soca artist Patrice Roberts released the music video for her new song, Mind Your Business. We listened with great interest when the song started and we heard the catchy chorus of ‘Drink Water and Mind Your Business’ and thought with pleasant surprise: ‘Wow! Now that’s different!’
For us, this song was well-timed because, for the past year, we have been running a public health campaign entitled ‘You’re Sweet Enough.’ This campaign aims to educate the public about the health impact of consuming too many sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) as research has shown that the overconsumption of these types of beverages is linked to weight gain, obesity and the development of non-communicable diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.
A major part of our campaign focuses on encouraging the public to reduce their SSB consumption and to drink water instead. And, in order to encourage this behaviour change, we have explored various avenues including composing a catchy jingle, utilising animation, hosting public engagement events and advocating for evidence-based health policies that have been shown to be effective at reducing the public’s consumption of SSBs; policies such as an SSB tax, restricting the sale and marketing of SSBs in and around schools and front of package warning labels. Whilst this all-encompassing approach is making a difference, we are competing with the high volume of marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages, and there is a need to see how these messages can be balanced with more healthy lifestyle messages in mainstream media. In the Caribbean region, one way to do this is to use music to reach a wide audience as music, particularly soca music, is ingrained in our culture.
Therefore, through our jingle, we worked with local artist Dejour, who provided the vocals for our jingle, to help amplify our campaign message in a fun and engaging way. Through music, we were able to reach all age groups and genders, and we were able to extend the message further through dance. In essence, we were able to link a positive health message to ‘coolness’ and, through our ‘catchy’ jingle, the healthy drinking message of our campaign was remembered by our audience with members of the public anecdotally reporting that they remembered the jingle when they were making beverage purchases or they sang the jingle to their children to encourage them to select water.
In order to build on this success, we need more positive health messages in the mainstream that amplify our healthy drinking message. Enter: ‘Drink Water and Mind You Business’ by Patrice Roberts.
As mentioned previously, we were very surprised, and pleasantly so, by Patrice Roberts’ new song. We were surprised because, historically, when we explore the messages of mainstream music, when it comes to lifestyle habits, the messages predominantly promote unhealthy behaviours. Specifically, when we look at drinking messages in music, many songs promote the consumption, and most times, the overconsumption of alcohol. For example, a study conducted by the Boston School of Public Health reviewed 720 songs from Billboard Magazine’s year-end charts from 2009 to 2011 and found that 23% of songs mentioned alcohol and that urban music (rap, hip hop and R&B – the genres of music that we are more likely to listen to in the Caribbean) had the highest percentage of alcohol mentions, with 38% of these songs referencing alcohol. Additionally, when looking at Caribbean music, a Guyanese study reported that 37% of Guyanese chutney songs contain references to alcohol. Music is a powerful influential tool and research has shown that songs containing references to alcohol have a direct impact on the public’s alcohol consumption.
With this being said, we can see that music artists have an important role to play when it comes to promoting healthy habits. Through responsible songwriting and music video creation, they can positively influence the behaviour of their fans and improve their health and wellbeing. Let’s take a look at Patrice Roberts’ new song as an example. Since 1st January 2022, this song has garnered almost half a million views on YouTube and since this time Patrice Roberts has been encouraging her fans to drink water and stay hydrated.
Patrice Roberts’ fans, in turn, have responded positively and have stated that, indeed, they too will be drinking more water this year in direct response to this new song.
“Imma sit back, drink water And mind my business!!”
“For de New Year I gon drink water and mind my business.”
“Water is life…..drinking water and minding my business.”
“Water (check), minding my business (been doing that all my life). Sounds about right to me. Great song!”
It’s early days and this isn’t too scientific, but we can see from a quick perusal of Patrice Roberts’ social media platforms that the song has had a large reach, has acted as a reminder to her fans to select water as their drink of choice this year and has created an intention amongst her fans to drink more water.
As the year progresses, we hope that more artists will make the decision to promote healthy habits amongst their fan base as for too long the music industry has glamourised negative behaviour.
References
- Engels RC, Slettenhaar G, ter Bogt T, Scholte RH. Effect of alcohol references in music on alcohol consumption in public drinking places. Am J Addict. 2011 Nov-Dec;20(6):530-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1521-0391.2011.00182.x. PMID: 21999498.
- Sanchara N (2016). The glamorization of alcohol in contemporary Guyanese Chutney Music. Accessed on 12th January 2022 from http://guyfolkfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Nadine-Sanchara-Glamorization-of-Alcohol-in-Contempoary-Guyanese-Chutney-Music.pdf
- Siegel M, Johnson RM, Tyagi K, Power K, Lohsen MC, Ayers AJ, Jernigan DH. Alcohol brand references in U.S. popular music, 2009-2011. Subst Use Misuse. 2013 Dec;48(14):1475-84. doi: 10.3109/10826084.2013.793716. Epub 2013 Aug 23. PMID: 23971875; PMCID: PMC3830686.
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