Save Us from the Politics of Behaviour
…[UK Secreatary of State] Reid also announced that a propaganda campaign will be launched, ‘to build public awareness and change behaviour’ in areas such as obesity, sexual health and smoking. To assist this objective of changing behaviour, the ‘independent’ National Consumer Council (NCC) will be charged with developing a ‘social marketing strategy that promotes health’. The NCC will also ‘consider health psychology and social research to determine how best to influence lifestyle and change behaviour’.
It is clear that the UK government is not simply concerned with providing information. It is in the business of behaviour modification. That is why government ministers are not interested in social research that helps to make sense of the world and points out the root causes of problems facing the nation. Instead, their concern is solely with research that can help them to influence and alter individual behaviour. Once upon a time, such research was characterised as propaganda and social marketing, a form of emotional manipulation. Today, emotional manipulation is depicted as an instrument for ‘raising awareness’. As Paul Barker, former editor of New Society, wrote, the British government is ‘wedded to social intervention, for which a better phrase would be social manipulation’
Progress Is Slow in Reversing Childhood Obesity Trend
Government, industry, communities, schools, and families have developed many initiatives to respond to the growing problem of childhood obesity, but efforts remain fragmented. Moreover, most of the policies and programs are not being evaluated, making it difficult to identify effective interventions, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine…
The report also points out that CDC's VERB campaign, a five-year social marketing campaign to promote physical activity in children ages 9 to 13, has had positive evaluation results. However, FY 2006 funding was not included in the federal budget, and the program will be discontinued this month…
The report also calls on the government to sustain successful programs such as the CDC's VERB campaign, which has demonstrated its effectiveness in promoting physical activity in children. "The termination of a well-designed and effective program to increase physical activity and combat childhood obesity calls into question the commitment of both the government and many other stakeholders who could have supported the continuity of the VERB campaign,"stated Koplan.
Technorati Tags: Childhood Obesity, Health Education, Lifestyle, Social Marketing
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