Can Entertainment Help Save Lives? A New Study Says Yes—Especially on Social Media

What if the secret to getting more people to join life-saving cancer clinical trials lies not in dense pamphlets or clinical websites, but in the kind of video you'd actually want to watch on your phone during lunch? That’s the question Dr. Vida Henderson and her collaborators set out to explore—and the results might just change how we talk about cancer research.

In an era where nearly 64% of the global population use social media and a lot of them seek health information online, the challenge isn’t just about providing accurate health content—it’s about grabbing people’s attention long enough for the content to make a difference. Traditional public service announcements or educational outreach often fall flat in a fast-scrolling world. So what happens when health communication meets infotainment—content that aims to inform and entertain?

A new study published in JMIR Cancer tested this exact idea by creating and promoting a five-minute video about a breast cancer clinical trial using a playful, parody-style approach that mimicked pharmaceutical commercials. The aim? To see if storytelling and humor could get more people to engage with critical, life-saving information about cancer trials.

Cancer clinical trials are essential to developing better treatments, but less than 5% of adults living with cancer in the U.S. enroll in them. One major reason is that people simply don’t know they exist or don’t understand what they involve. The researchers behind this study wanted to change that. Their goal was to see if an “infotainment” video—a term that blends information with entertainment—could nudge social media users toward seeking out more information about a clinical trial.

The trial in focus was Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG S1501), which tests whether a common heart medication called carvedilol can help prevent heart damage in people undergoing treatment with agents know to carry a high risk of heart damage for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. The video introduced this concept through a character named Beth, a relatable patient flipping through TV channels who ends up in a surreal, tongue-in-cheek conversation with characters from a gleefully over-the-top pharma commercial. Through her questions and interactions, viewers learn about the trial in a fun, digestible way.

Instead of just uploading the video and hoping for the best, the team behind the study launched a structured Facebook advertising campaign. They tested two types of audiences: people interested in breast cancer research and those connected to breast cancer organizations. The former group showed higher engagement and became the focus of the full 21-day campaign. The video reached more than 61,000 users and had over 47,000 views (defined as at least three seconds). More impressively, the number of people who clicked on the "Learn More" button linking to the clinical trial page skyrocketed—from just one person the month before the video launch to 414 during the campaign. That's a staggering 41,300% increase in traffic to the trial information page. While only 34 people watched the full five-minute video, many clicked the link before finishing it. This suggests that the most important moment for engagement might be within the first minute. In fact, viewers who stuck around past the one-minute mark tended to watch most or all of the video, showing that once hooked, people were likely to stay.

The study makes a compelling case for using infotainment in public health communication. With a modest budget of $1,000 and a production cost of $4,000 (kept low through in-kind services), the campaign proved both effective and affordable. It’s a model that could be replicated by nonprofits, cancer centers, or even local health departments hoping to reach broader audiences with life-saving information. However, not all metrics were perfect. The video’s click-through rate—how many viewers clicked to learn more—was slightly below average for health care campaigns on Facebook but higher than the average for science-related campaigns. Importantly, the study did not measure whether any of those clicks translated into actual trial enrollment. Still, in a world where awareness is the first hurdle, these numbers show promise.

This study is about more than just one Facebook campaign. It represents a shift in how medical institutions might communicate with the public. Instead of relying solely on traditional formats, researchers can now tap into the language and rhythm of digital life—humor, storytelling, and brevity—to reach people where they are.

It also reveals potential challenges. For instance, the video had no subtitles, which could be a problem since research shows that 85% of Facebook users watch videos without sound. The study also didn’t collect demographic details of the viewers, meaning researchers couldn’t track who was clicking or if they were potential trial participants.

Still, the broader implications are hopeful. In an increasingly digital world, health messages must adapt. Infotainment videos may not just be fun—they could be a critical bridge to better health outcomes. This study proves that when it comes to sharing vital health information, how you say something is just as important as what you say. A clever video, thoughtfully marketed on the right platform, can transform awareness and spark curiosity about life-saving research.

This research was supported by The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research and the SWOG Cancer Research Network through NIH/NCI. Additional support was provided by Digital Health Networks.

Fred Hutch/UW/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium members Dr. Vida Henderson contributed to this work.

Sommers, J., Dizon, D. S., Lewis, M. A., Stone, E., Andreoli, R., & Henderson, V. 2025. Assessing Health Information Seeking Behaviors Among Targeted Social Media Users Using an Infotainment Video About a Cancer Clinical Trial: Population-Based Descriptive Study. JMIR cancer, 11, e56098.