Nanny Knows Best
The much loved political buzzwords now are “focus”, “targeting” and “personalising”.
In other words, less of the one-size-fits-all campaigns telling us to stop smoking, reduce alcohol consumption and shun fatty food. With huge variations in lifestyles across the country — revealed in new maps this week showing a North-South [United Kingdom] obesity divide — the Government is looking to support local projects that identify those most at risk, say, of type 2 diabetes, and find ways to educate them based on the way they live and absorb information.
It’s an approach that the Department of Health has been working quietly on since April last year, and is now proclaiming as its new “social marketing approach” — rather riskily, perhaps, given that it sounds rather like social engineering.
But it makes a lot of sense…
Bangladesh: Land of Water
In Bangladesh, U.S. aid helped found the Social Marketing Company… It unleashed an education and publicity blitz that saturates people with information about the benefits of pills, condoms and oral rehydration salts (which help prevent infant deaths from diarrhea). An extensive marketing network makes sure that these products are available in far-off villages and are affordable even for people whose monthly income is $10.
People are likely to value something more if they buy it instead of getting it free. So instead of giving out contraceptives, the company sells them at the highly subsidized rate of 1 taka (2.5 cents) for three condoms or a cycle of pills…
Most foreign aid workers in Dhaka sneer at social marketing as American commercialism run amok, but they cannot deny that it has reached out to more people, and its commonsense approach has changed lives more effectively than their grandiose plans that have never taken off.
Fears for the Future as Figures Reveal Britons are Fattest People in Europe
Being overweight or obese is now the norm in the UK, with figures released by the government yesterday showing that two-thirds of men and almost 60% of women are unhealthily heavy. We are also passing the problem to our children: if nothing changes, nearly a third of boys and girls aged under 11 will be overweight or obese by 2010…
The government has set itself the target of halting the year on year rise in obesity among children under 11 by 2010. But it does not set a similar target for stopping the weight gain in adults, aiming instead to encourage people to "want to change their lifestyles and take responsibility for their health".
Ms Flint said it was not part of her job to tell people what to do.
Instead, the government is looking towards incentives, such as a voucher scheme offering money off fruit and vegetables being tried out in Cornwall, and more subliminal approaches.
Next spring it will launch an obesity "social marketing strategy", based on research into the most effective ways of targeting messages to particular groups.
See related stories here and here.
Health Department Gets $50,000 Grant
The grant is for the health department's "Teen Pregnancy Prevention Multimedia Campaign in Washington County" [Maryland] program.
The money will allow the health department to institute a multimedia social marketing campaign to address the high incidence of teen births in the county.
The health department's family planning clinics will serve 800 teens, and the media outlets and educational resources will reach an estimated 18,000 teens and 30,000 adults in Western Maryland.
Canadian Parks Council - Ministers' Meeting
…Yet, while a healthy ecosystem is recognized as essential to human health, it seems that the development of programs that use the natural environment as a foundation to promote human health have only been explored in a very preliminary way.
One of the most intriguing of those preliminary efforts has been the Australian initiative to establish a Healthy Parks, Healthy People program which first began communicating the importance of parks and nature for human health and well-being to governments and the community at large. The Australian example has been applied to programs for all levels of parks, and is a key part of parks messaging.
The paper Taking Action on Healthy Living, a preliminary document for the Healthy Living Strategy argues: This Healthy Living Strategy will improve the health of Canadians by supporting them in making positive health choices. It is founded on a population health approach, which recognizes that healthy behaviours are strongly influenced by the social, economic and physical environments where Canadians live, work, learn and play. The final Strategy similarly recognizes that factors like the built environment, and arguably, the natural environment, are known to have an impact on healthy living, making it clear that the contribution of setting to the pursuit of healthy lifestyles is recognized as important. Consequently, parks and protected area agencies have a huge natural advantage in seeking to attract the public and involve them in healthy activities…
The social marketing campaign contemplated in the Healthy Living Strategy stresses the need for a personal and community-level commitment to making healthy choices. The Working Group feels that the Parks sector can and should be a central part of the efforts to encourage Canadians to make such lifestyle changes
Indian Child Rights Advocate
The woman behind the success of India's leading non-profit organisation working to restore the rights of underprivileged Indian children says that it's possible to raise sufficient money indigenously for a cause…
A key tool for raising money for a cause is building local philanthropic brands, said Srinath who came out of the world of advertising to beat "just boredom" and nevertheless used her professional expertise to lend a cutting edge to social marketing…
Appointed CRY's director of resource mobilisation in 2000, Srinath completely re-engineered its fundraising operations resulting in several new revenue streams including online marketing, fundraising and advocacy.
With this, CRY has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 35 percent and has one of the most robust resource mobilisation models in the sector. Srinath was selected as a Synergos Senior Fellow in 2003. As part of her fellowship, she consults with foundations across the world, sharing CRY's experience in social marketing and fundraising.
Technorati Tags: Children's Rights, Family Planning, Health Communication, Health Education, Healthy Living, Obesity, Parks, Physical Activity, Pregnancy Prevention, Social Marketing
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