Using cinematic storytelling videos to increase awareness of children's product recalls for Spanish-speaking parents

In 2012, there were 346 recalls issued by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), of which 97 (28%) were children‘s products. The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System estimates that 230,000 annual visits to emergency rooms are due to injuries associated with nursery products and toys.

Although the CPSC notifies the public of recalled items, potentially hazardous products can continue to  circulate in second-hand shops, garage sales and swap meets. Such products have been found to be associated with a continuing number of child injuries. CPSC believes that many consumers are unaware of recalls, product standards or bans. Research has shown many parents lack awareness of recalls and studies point to Hispanic children as being at even greater risk.

Our goal was to demystify and contextualize the process of children’s product recalls for consumers while making the information accessible in terms of literacy, culture and technology. This project created new content and launched a novel educational resource aggregating the best tools related to recalls of children’s products. It is among the first to also offer comprehensive information in Spanish.

According to a recent ethnographic study by Swisscom Innovation, Hispanics depend on their cell phones for more services than other large ethnic groups. In the U.S., 93% of Hispanics use a mobile phone regularly and 45% have smart phones-the highest among all ethnic groups, including whites. Hispanics also outpace the general population in accessing and downloading digital media (music, video, audio, movies, television programs, video games and pod casts). Our own research on the use of mobile devices among low-income Hispanic California consumers showed high rates of cellphone ownership as well as a preference for receiving information via mobile phone.

We partnered with Safe Kids California (SKC), a member of Safe Kids Worldwide and part of a global network of organizations dedicated to preventing accidental childhood injury. SKC has 19 California chapters and is affiliated with 350 resource centers known as Family Strengthening Organizations.

The safekidscalifornia.org website became the project’s hub. We worked with SKC to rebuild their website using a responsive design platform to make the site mobile-friendly and added new content, including videos, a product look-up ‘widget’ connected to recalls.gov and resources in English and Spanish. By establishing a long-term relationship with SKC we aim to make this information available to consumers across the U.S.

We began by convening three focus groups with low-income parents (two with Spanish-dominant parents, one with English-speaking parents) to gather feedback on knowledge and awareness of product recalls, understanding of recalled products and the secondary market, information needs and communications preferences. This also helped guide development of themes, tone of voice, and style of the videos.

The videos use a concept called “cinematic storytelling,” which combines engaging narrative with high production values and educational content accessible to low-literacy consumers. There are two videos. “Wheels” (00:45:00) and “Hello, Baby” (00:62:00). Each has an English and Spanish version as well as 30-second edit for use as broadcast PSAs.

With SKCs help, we will roll out the content, first to the 19 Safe Kids coalitions in California, and then to 350 Family Strengthening Organizations statewide. We plan to jointly develop and co-present at a number of national childhood injury prevention meetings and also inform parents through both conventional and new media releases and advisories.

This resource provides a toolkit for educating parents about recalls of children’s products for SKCs coalitions and extensive network of partners. Additionally, this project provides a new Spanish-language outreach resource to help organizations serving low-income Hispanic parents.