Stardom comes with power to influence others’ expectations and hopes, which marketers leverage to sell everything from reverse mortgages to wellness products. If you are a cancer patient, celebrities' cancer stories catch your attention in ways that hearing about neighbors' or friends-of-friends' diagnoses don't.
Problems arise when stories are designed to boost magazine sales or online metrics—and not to teach. Tabloids posting horrific pictures lead people to conclude, “That’s what cancer looks like.” On the flip side, paparazzi-generated imagery showcasing stars in treatment rocking glamorous red-carpet getups may lead patients to glance from the TV to their mirror and wonder why they don't look as healthy, the way some women wearing size 8 feel fat after watching Project Runway.
I applaud celebrities who use their platform to increase awareness and educate the public about sound practices. Unfortunately, patients suffer when media coverage confuses an issue or, worse, highlights celebrity endorsements that lead people astray with narratives that generate misguided expectations and false hope.
Two lessons on responding in healthy ways to celebrities’ cancer stories:
Undisclosed details likely played key roles in a celebrity’s outcome.
Patients in seemingly identical situations have different outcomes due to factors we can't measure.
A sense of connection with celebrities can be a good thing for everyone. After Princess Kate announced her cancer diagnosis, I mailed her a handwritten message of encouragement. After introducing myself as a long-term survivor whose young children thrived during and after my treatments, I expressed great hope for her young family thriving long-term, too.
Excerpted from Oncology Times article: Addressing Celebrities’ Cancer Stories
We welcome your comments! SEE COMMENTS UNDER COMMENT BOX (below)
Subscribe here for e-notifications of new posts. Privacy Policy: We collect only your name and email address—
and we do not share with anyone. You may unsubscribe easily at any time. For archives of older posts, click here.