March 14, 2012 was a very exciting day for the chiropractic profession. Nearly 21 million viewers tuned in to the "Dr. Phil" show and heard Dr. Phil McGraw say that he sees his doctor of chiropractic several times a week.
This particular "Dr. Phil" show featured Dr. Fabrizio Mancini, president of Parker University. Dr. Mancini told viewers about chiropractic principles and talked about his book, The Power of Self-Healing: Unlock Your Natural Healing Potential in 21 Days. Dr. Patrick DeFazio, Dr. McGraw's current DC in Los Angeles, also talked about how chiropractor works.
This was chiropractic's first appearance on the program. If you missed seeing it, you can view this particular segment, titled "Healing Forty Years of Anger and Pain" online at http://drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/6787. You can also read our original article about the episode, including a summary video, on our Web site: www.dynamicchiropractic.com/video.
As the show was filmed on Feb. 23 in advance of the March airing, there was an opportunity to inform DCs across the country about the historic event prior to the air date. Numerous e-mails were sent out between Feb. 23 and March 14 in an effort to encourage people to watch the show and learn more about chiropractic. Doctors took the time to share the information with their patients and even post it on their Web sites and Facebook pages.
The net result of all this effort was considerable. The television folks received over 150 inquiries from viewers asking how they could find a doctor of chiropractic in their area. Some even asked where they could find information about becoming a doctor of chiropractic themselves.
In addition, the March 14 "Dr. Phil" show was the highest-rated daytime television show for that day. This made the producers ecstatic and will probably open the door for more chiropractic appearances in the future. The ratings were also seen by every other talk show on television, of course. This could open even more doors for chiropractic to appear on other talk shows. (Dr. Steven Shoshany, a N.Y. chiropractor, has appeared on the "Dr. Oz Show" show twice, most recently on March 14, the same day Drs. Mancini and DeFazio were featured on "Dr. Phil." A review of Dr. Shoshany's visit appears in the May 20 issue of DC, which also reports on Dr. Mancini's visit to "The Doctors.")
But perhaps the greatest result was the demonstration by the chiropractic profession that we can work together (without any association or organizational affiliation) to promote chiropractic to the public. There's no mistaking that it was the grassroots effort by many individual DCs that pushed the show's rating to the top of daytime television.
In short, we did it. Together, with everyone putting in their own bits of time and without anyone spending significant amounts of money, the chiropractic profession demonstrated that we can promote chiropractic to millions of people. As someone who was at the filming of the "Dr. Phil" episode and involved in the effort to promote it, I can tell you that our ability to mobilize potential viewers is not lost on the television producers. For them, ratings are everything.
We can't afford to let our enthusiasm wane. Sometime in the near future, we will have another opportunity for chiropractic to gain exposure to millions of people. It may not be a television show you watch or even like, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that we are all just as committed (or even more so) to getting our patients, families and friends to watch every time chiropractic is positively featured on a television program.
If you shared the information about chiropractic as it was presented on "Dr. Phil" with your patients and friends, well-done, thank you. If you didn't participate (for whatever reason), please join us in the future. We need you. We may not yet have the money for a television advertising campaign. That will cost us millions. But we can all help place positive chiropractic exposure on television without spending any money. All we need to do is work together and remember TCAM: Together Chiropractic Achieves More.
Read more findings on my blog: http://blog.toyourhealth.com/wrblog/. You can also visit me on Facebook.
Click here for more information about Donald M. Petersen Jr., BS, HCD(hc), FICC(h), Publisher.