conversations
conversations
What’ s in a conversation? It’ s the beginning of new ideas. A sharing of personal stories.
BY MAE MAÑAC AP-JOHNSON A start of meaningful relationships. This Pulse section called Conversations highlights opinions, ideas, visions and personal anecdotes of CEOs and leaders from across industries. Join the conversation. Send your questions and suggestions on leaders you’ d like Pulse to profile.
Edelman Executive Vice President Jennifer Pfahler tells the story of wellness through the art of public relations. She leads the firm— one of the biggest public relations firms in the world— in creating wellness strategies and campaigns for top clients like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, the American Heart Association, to name a few.
“ At Edelman, we have a global health practice called‘ Wellness 360’ which looks at how consumers view health holistically and communicates in a 360-way,” Pfahler says, stressing that, in light of growing public demand for businesses to embrace health engagement, wellness has since become a major focus at Edelman.
Pulse opens up this interview with questions on how the spa industry can become an ally in bringing the topic of wellness to the public and how spa leaders can lead the conversation.
JENNIFER PFAHLER
PULSE: What attracted you to the world of public relations? Pfahler: Two reasons: 1) Public relations, unlike advertising, is earned coverage so it’ s more credible, more real, more authentic— and I like the authenticity of public relations. 2) Public relations is about storytelling, and I believe every company and brand has a story to tell. What is interesting about our job as PR professionals is we try to find what that unique story is, how to tell it, where to tell it and who to tell it to.
P: Of the many wellness campaigns you’ ve done, which one was most challenging and rewarding? P: The“ Go Red” campaign for the American Heart Association would probably be one that is most rewarding, but also has its own set of challenges. Most women think that breast cancer is the number one killer; but in reality, it’ s heart disease.
Breast cancer has such a great following, as it deserves, so we really had to find our voice and break through to women to make them aware that heart disease is the number one killer.
We came up with a number of different programs to support women to become heart-healthy but also wanted women to create a community of women so they can share the word that they need to understand their own risk factors.
When we started the program nine years ago, only 10 percent of women knew that heart disease is the number one
March / April 2012 ■ PULSE 19