It’s June first.  Cue up the pool safety blog posts.  It’s a predictable part of every hospital’s editorial calendar and a rite of summer in the health infosphere.

We want desperately to be timely and seasonal.  But the end result is the same: Year after year, post after post, empty copy that fills space but falls flat.  Content farming masquerading as stuff that anyone actually cares about has become the new norm for health communication.  We fool ourselves into thinking that another search optimized, sterile, cookie cutter list of vapid, predicable tips make a difference.

New media, it seems, doesn’t give us anything new.  Just the old voices in a new space.

“But we need more pool safety posts,” they say.  “We can’t be too careful.  And if we save just one life, well we’ve done our job.” Of course.  But can’t we do better than that?  Can’t we take health messaging a little more seriously?

Consider whether what we create really impacts anyone or anything.  Make something with at least a remote chance to stick.  Take a new angle, approach, view, or voice.  Tell a story.  Be unsafe, human and real.  Compel young mothers to stop, look and listen.

Give them something they’ll remember.  It’s summer.  School’s out.  Our kids depend upon it.