This is a study of an ethnographic approach, developed in 2003, with the objective to know the popular explicative model and that of the health professional concerning the messages propagated through a poster in a campaign of the Brazilian Health Department. The informers were composed of distinct groups of professionals and users of a health center of the Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. For each one of the groups three conducting questions during an individual interview were applied. As results, explicative popular and professional models were obtained, divergent concerning the understanding of the message, the reactions/emotions aroused, the motivations to act as a function of self-care, and the difficult elements of comprehension of the message propagated by the poster. We conclude that there is a need for participation of the final receptor in the elaboration of the content and art of the posters utilized in the health campaigns, assuming as such that this receptor dimensions the communicational process, which will be determined through cultural, economic, and social, among other factors.
Community-institutional relations; Health education; Communications media