The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress is beginning its much-anticipated advertising campaign with full-page, four-color advertisements in four of the most widely read publications in the United States. The foundation ads will be published in the July 24 issue of US News & World Report, the July 24 issue of Sports Illustrated, the Aug. 21 issue of Newsweek and the Aug. 21 issue of USA Today.
The full-page ads will be published nationally in all but Sports Illustrated, in which it will be published regionally. The initial advertising push will reach over 8 million readers with good news about the value of chiropractic care.
Featured prominently in the ads is Sarah Harding, Ms. Fitness USA for 2006. (She also won the event in 2004.) A chiropractic patient since she was a young child, Sarah is very outspoken about chiropractic:
"Basically, I've always believed in chiropractic care. My parents introduced my brothers and myself to chiropractic care when we were very young and it's been an instrumental part of my life. I believe that it allowed me to do gymnastics when I was very little and allowed me to stay in sports and lead a very active lifestyle. I think it's natural to have aches and pains when you bend your body in directions it wasn't necessarily meant to [be bent in], so it makes sense to go to a chiropractor to get my body back in alignment. Ever since I can remember, I've gone to a chiropractor.
"For me, whether you're a professional athlete or not - my parents aren't professional athletes and they've been to chiropractors for as long as I can remember, at least for the last 30 years and it helps them in their everyday life, it helps them in their mobility and in just feeling feeling happy - when you feel like you've got a healthy body, you're going to move more comfortably. It's going to affect your relationships and it's going to affect the work that you do, no matter what work you do, whether you're sitting at a computer or playing outside or whatever you may be doing. I strongly recommend chiropractic care for everyone; however, each person is different and requires different needs to live a healthy life.
"I'm grateful there's chiropractic care out there and that people are willing to take a different approach to avoid invasive treatment. I'm happy there is a nonsurgical treatment out there for a number of ailments or aches and pains. I guess I'm just happy that there is chiropractic care, because I do believe that's what enables me to enjoy a life of performing and a life of competing."
| The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress is placing this full-page advertisement in the July 24 issue of US News & World Report, the July 24 issue of Sports Illustrated, the Aug. 21 issue of Newsweek, and the Aug. 21 issue of USA Today. The ad is the first push in the foundation's much-anticipated advertising campaign to promote the benefits of chiropractic to the public. |
Sarah's confidence in chiropractic goes beyond what her parents taught her. Her own experiences convinced her of chiropractic's importance in helping her live a healthy life:
"The biggest impact it had for me was when I was a competitive gymnast at a very young age I was dealing with a fair amount of aches and pains when I was young. I remember being 12 years old and I kind of went to the chiropractor because my parents made me, almost like going to the doctor or going to the dentist, something like your parents saying, 'Oh, you're going,' so you say 'OK, I'm going,' but you didn't necessarily understand the benefits of it.
"I was 11 or 12 years old when I started to have pain in my wrist and it got to the point where it really frightened me because I didn't know what was going on with my body. I think that's very common for people to get scared when they realize their body isn't functioning normally. It's not functioning the way it's supposed to or the way it used to. When you deal with pain, it's a lot more than a physical response; there's a lot of emotional response that goes along with it. So, as a young kid or a young adolescent, I started to get really scared and I thought, what if I can't continue gymnastics? What if? I've got this huge gymnastics meet approaching in the next week and a half. What if I can't go?
"I was supposed to travel to the mainland from Hawaii and there was a big meet in California and we went first to an orthopedic doctor, who basically prescribed rest and some anti-inflammatory. And I thought, OK, I'll do that, but it doesn't seem to be helping much. It doesn't seem to be helping as quickly as I need. Then I went to my chiropractor and he was not only doing adjustments, he was doing a lot of ice - I would soak my hand in ice for a little while just to reduce the swelling, because there was a lot of swelling going on, but he basically did a lot of other therapy in addition to just rest.
"In 10 days, he was able to get my wrist mobile again, feeling healthy, and I actually was able to make it to the gymnastics meet. And I won the meet. And it was the first time I ever won a mainland meet. It was a big competition for me and it suddenly put things in perspective. I actually wanted to go to the chiropractor after that because I thought, Wow! I really felt like he could work miracles and part of it was because I began to believe in what he was doing and see the benefits. It became a personal choice for me; it was no longer my parent's decision, it was my own."
The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress is seeking doctors to join the advertising campaign. As Sarah says:
"I think it's important for chiropractors to team together and recognize that it's important for the health of the general population to recognize the benefits of chiropractic care. And I think the best way to do it is for chiropractors to team together and say, 'Hey, look. We do all sorts of different things, [so] come check out chiropractic care in your local area and find out what it can do for you.' "
This advertising campaign is just the beginning. Much more can be accomplished if every DC does his or her part.
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