On Social Marketing and Social Change

Social Marketing in the News

Good Agricultural and Pastoral Production

As the harvest season gets underway, food security and nutritional conditions are generally calm following a relatively easy lean period.  Grain availability is good, thanks to large market supplies, the beginning of harvesting activities in nearly all parts of the country and ongoing social marketing programs and targeted distributions of free food aid… As far as nutrition indicators are concerned, there has been a sizeable drop in admissions to treatment facilities with the improvement in the household food security and the active involvement of women in ongoing farm work.

Porn Actors Set to Star in Meth Campaign

Crystal methamphetamine might not be so sexy any more. There have been reported decreases in crystal meth use and HIV infection rates among gay and bi men, but community service providers aren't convinced the message equals a trend.

That is why starting this week the Stonewall Project is launching the "Hot Sex Without Crystal? Hell Yes!" campaign featuring eight gay male porn stars who volunteered their time for the project to promote the message that hot sex on a natural high is not only possible but sexy as well…

For 2005, the most recent data available, there was a 21 percent drop in new cases of HIV transmission among gay and bisexual men since 2001…Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, director of the STD Prevention and Control for DPH, is hopeful that the emerging figures potentially point toward a positive new trend. "It's encouraging and shows that social marketing campaigns can be effective, that the San Francisco gay male community cares about these issues and that they can be effectively mobilized," he said…

"I think you have to look carefully at and be a little bit skeptical about some of these statistics," said Siever, who is co-chair of the Mayor's Task Force on Crystal Meth… "There are often fluctuations in some of these statistics that don't necessarily mean they are on a long-term trend..."

One of the concerns about the drop in the statistics being reported is that while the numbers might be showing positive results due to the media and educational campaigns and direct outreach by social service agencies, there is the concern that people, due to the new stigma around crystal meth, might not be providing accurate information in community agency surveys and to healthcare workers.

Who Sets the Agenda for Microcredit?

…In the ’50s and ’60s, development was perceived more as a capital-intensive mix of charity and social welfare measures.

From the mid-’70s onwards, the development discourse accentuated empowerment, on the one hand, and professionalism and skills in service delivery and project implementation on the other.

And, in the later part of the ’90s, when the notion of the welfare state is gradually withering away and transnational corporations have begun to incorporate philanthropy as a successful social marketing strategy, development itself is increasingly being treated as a business -- a profitable business at that. The larger-than-life image of microcredit epitomises this basic shift.

At the moment, Grameen Bank is the presiding deity of poverty eradication through the strategy of microcredit. The lesson many of us learnt from the Grameen Bank model is not so much about real political or for that matter socio-economic empowerment, but the fact that women from the lowest social strata are creditworthy. And a well-oiled institutional strategy of delivery and repayment can really help generate profit for the bank.

The neo-liberal ideology of development lays so much emphasis on institutional frameworks and success rates of institutions that it tends to sideline the long-term process of empowerment at the grassroots level. When the output of development is measured in highly deceptive quantitative scales, such as GNP, GDP and the financial balance sheets of service-delivery organisations, it does not really matter what happens to the everyday lives of the people, or what they experience, think and feel.

Social change institutions and service-delivery organisations may play a significant role in long-term social change. But it would be erroneous to equate the institutional or financial viability of such organisations with the extent of real social development.

Symposium, Mela on Social Marketing for Self-Help Groups Organised

The rhythms of Kerala's traditional folk music resounded amidst stalls stocked with terracotta and jute handicrafts, homemade pickles and jams and colourful textiles at the Madras School of Social Work (MSSW) here on Saturday.

More than forty representative teams of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) participated in the symposium and mela on social marketing called `Paadhaigal - Forging New Paths' here that concluded on Sunday.

Members of the groups picked up tips from experts on marketing and branding their products, encashing on the retail boom and other avenues that could be explored for income generation.

Social Marketing in the News

Every Day Is Christmas: Careers in Service Bring Full-Time Joy

"I always wanted to do some form of social marketing or community outreach that I could feel could impact somebody's life in a good way and that was tangible in that impact," she said last week, while trying to ignore ringing phones, e-mails and a pile of paperwork for just a few minutes. "And in a sense, I wanted to see people's lives enriched by giving of their time and resources to make a difference."

Voice of God Aids Safe Sex

Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust wanted to do a Maharashtra Condom Social Marketing Programme. The objectives of this programme were the implementation of a generic condom promotion aimed at increasing the use of condoms in all non-regular partner sex encounters. The aim was to build capacities of retailers and NGOs for effective promotion, merchandising and distribution of condoms in high-risk areas and to pioneer innovations like customised condoms…

The insight was that the educator needed to be someone whom these men would listen to without feeling that they were being preached to. We therefore chose the Maharashtrian archetype of the unofficially elected ‘Bhau’ or elder brother (who men go to for advice and listen to in times of need).

Syphilis Test Campaign May Increase Tests

A social marketing campaign urging gay and bisexual men in San Francisco to get checked for syphilis has been linked to an increase in syphilis tests.

Cartoons advocating the tests were placed in a gay newspaper, and poster-sized reproductions were posted on the streets, on bus shelters, on Webs sites and in gay bars…

"The social marketing campaign was effective in augmenting syphilis testing and increasing syphilis awareness and knowledge in the San Francisco gay and bisexual community," say the authors. "This effect might have contributed to decreased syphilis incidence in 2005."

Link to research article.

Science on a Roll in 2007

Health officials have learnt from marketing types which of us will be most susceptible to adverts — and will be using similar techniques to sell us health education. “Social marketing” is the new buzzword at the Department of Health, and 2007 will see a barrage of targeted health education initiatives. By analysing where we shop, what cars we own and what illnesses we get by postcode, boffins will be able to pinpoint who needs to cut down on the chips, and which newspapers they should advertise in to reach us.

Eric Rofes Speaks

The use of social marketing as the primary tool in HIV education and prevention has been a disaster with consequences we never imagined.  While social marketing might be useful for the simple presentation of non-directive information, AIDS prevention for gay men has almost NEVER been non-directive.  Instead social-marketing has become the primary way well-intentioned public health leaders have attempted to colonize the bodies and desires of gay men.  To their credit, gay men have rebelled, resisted, and developed our own sex cultures and sex values that are quite contrary to most social marketing values.  It’s the difference between abstinence only (“use a condom every time”) and harm reduction (providing people with information and trusting them to move forward on their own volition)…

Rocksnot's Smothering Grip Could Yet Be Loosened

Didymo, more commonly known by the delightful name rock snot, has been found in 28 South Island [New Zealand] waterways since the microscopic but fast-growing Northern Hemisphere pest was first discovered in Southland rivers in October 2004… [It] smothers invertebrates – the main food source for fish – and in some cases threatens their population…

Since didymo was first discovered in Southland in October 2004, the Government has spent almost $9 million on scientific research to find control tools and on public awareness campaigns aimed at halting its spread…

Biosecurity NZ had done many "social marketing initiatives" aimed at promoting a behaviour change toward people accepting the need for checking, cleaning and drying equipment before moving between catchments.

Copy Tobacco Industry Tactics, Minister Urges Health Chiefs

… [UK] public health minister Caroline Flint called on PCTs [primary care trusts] and local authorities to use the same tools as the industries behind the increases in obesity and heart disease.

"There’s a lot we can learn from the commercial sector in terms of how they target consumers and keep them on board. We have to think clearly about what kind of messages might appeal to one group of people that don’t have the same appeal to others," she said.

"More and more we have to be smarter in terms of our approach to public health using the skills of social marketing to better identify people who need support and make better use of our resources to achieve the results."

She said the new approach to tackling smoking would be widened to find ways of reducing what experts now call the obesity epidemic and alcohol misuse.

"That’s why our campaigns are researched and well-thought through because it’s a lot of taxpayers’ money that we are using. Although I would say it’s very cost-effective in terms of outcomes. We want those outcomes and in the department we’ve been working on how in public health we can provide the right tools to primary care trusts and others to better plan and deliver services to help stop smoking or tackle obesity, alcohol and so on," she said…

HIV Ads to be Scrutinized in 2007

…Opponents of what they see as "fear-driven campaigns" counter that gay men are taking care of themselves, pointing to recent declines in both HIV rates and syphilis in San Francisco's gay male population. They have called for a two-year moratorium on all social marketing campaigns in order to dialogue with gay men on what types of messages should be directed at the community.

AIDS activist Michael Petrelis, one of the main proponents for the moratorium, said that after 25 years of living with the AIDS epidemic and countless HIV prevention messages "there is diminishing community buy-in to the campaigns."

The debate about HIV prevention messages will receive even more scrutiny this year, when the city's HIV Prevention Planning Council is expected to discuss concerns about the campaigns at either its February or March meeting.

Tracey Packer, interim HIV prevention director at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said the HPPC's steering committee has already discussed the issue and she intends to have the entire council address what HIV prevention messages members feel are appropriate.

Packer said some of the questions that came up during the committee meeting were: what are the standards for social marketing; and, should there be a group to monitor the messages that are produced?

Nigeria: Promoting Behavioural Change the SFH Way

The Society for Family Health (SFH) may be one of the many Non-Govern-mental Organizations (NGOs) in the country that can hold its head high, following its unalloyed commitment to issues that border on public health in Nigeria…

The organization, which is one of the leading social marketing institutions in Nigeria through its campaigns, has created high awareness on HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease (STDs), amongst others. This, in turn, has yielded good results in the behavioral change of Nigerians.

…social surveys conducted in the area of sex attitudes has shown that SFH's campaigns have yielded results in creating high awareness of not only HIV and AIDS but other sexually transmitted diseases among commercial sex workers, uniform services men and transport workers, amongst others... PEP [Peer Education Plus], which was developed and tested in Nigeria through an 18-months quasi-experimental process involving a total of 26 sites spread throughout the country, has exhibited significant risk reduction behaviours compared with non-PEP sites.

Social Marketing in the News

A Rare Interview

Carrie Crockett: Could you describe Rare's mission, in a nutshell?

Brett Jenks: Basically, we're setting out to build a global constituency for the environment, one community at a time. I think our method of constituency-building inspires the inhabitants of the world's most ecologically important places -- in part, because of pride in their environment, and in part, to protect their source of livelihood. Our primary projects are working to preserve endangered species and ecosystems, as well as to protect and establish national parks where none existed before...Our campaign managers study for 10 weeks in their own language at one of our three university centers in Mexico, the U.K., or Indonesia. They study social marketing and public opinion polling, among other things. From that point on, they have 12 months to launch and run the campaign. We're trying to get our mascots elected as symbols of the environment, much like winning a political election. For example, tens of thousands of school children end up knowing the Pride Campaign song written to protect an endangered species in their local community. We also use tools ranging from music videos to billboards to meetings with municipal leaders to promote, for example, why people should have pride in their watershed.

It's sort of like a cross between a New Hampshire primary and Smokey the Bear -- very grassroots, but at the same time, very marketing-savvy

Company Launches Pool Table Branding Campaign

Population Services International-Tanzania (PSI-Tz), announced yesterday its national campaign to brand pool tables with a message “Cheza Salama, Tumia Salama” meaning “Play safely, Use Salama condoms”.

The launching of the campaign has gone hand in hand with the official announcement that the organisation will award the winner of the on-going Dar es Salaam region‚l pool table competition with a branded new table worth 1.2m/-.

Welcoming the audience, PSI-Tz Tanzania Corporate Affairs Manager, Mary Mwanjelwa said her organisation has been in the country for the last 13 years and is committed through social marketing to increase demand for and consistent use of quality health products by making them affordable and accessible to vulnerable groups.

Ottawa Hopes Anti-Smoking Ad Attracts You Tube Parodies

In what may be a first for the federal government, Health Canada has posted its new anti-smoking ad on the You Tube Web site, with the unusual hope that Internet surfers will make fun of the spot....

In another new-media idea championed by the Minister, the department is producing podcasts, the first of which will feature a tracksuit-clad Mr. Clement doling out fitness and healthy eating tips. He would also like officials responsible for publicizing public-health information to look to the new generation of music videos for stylistic inspiration.

"I thought we should at least get into the 21st century at some point in 2006 when it comes to how we convey social marketing and, basically, the government's messages," said the Minister.

Mr. Clement's bespectacled, scholarly look belies a keen interest in alternative rock and other elements of pop culture not normally associated with middle aged politicians.

He said he first suggested about nine months ago that Health Canada use You Tube, where everyone from teenagers to major TV networks post videos that people can view for free on their computer or download to another device.

The response back then from officials? "What's You Tube?" recalls the Minister.

Social Marketing in the News

Meth and Gays: What’s Next?

The Crystal Breaks campaign, launched by the Crystal Meth Task Force during Northalsted Market Days, is not the only way the city will tackle the meth issue, Pickett said, as he also mentioned Project Crystal Prevention ( CRYSP ), a five-year prevention project to combat methamphetamine use and high-risk sex in the GLBT community…  The project’s goal is to increase community knowledge of the connections between meth use, high-risk sex and Internet use, as well as the link between crystal usage and HIV/STDs.

CRYSP will include educational and social marketing initiatives, such as Internet outreach, to address the effects of using crystal and advocate for services and policies

Report Links Cannabis to Mental Illness

A new report from the Mental Health Council [Australia] has found the use of cannabis increases young people's risk of suffering mental illness.

The report recommends federal, state and territory governments work together to create a social marketing campaign to warn people of the risks.

Former Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer launched the report this morning and says there are three key findings.

"Cannabis use increases young people's risk of mental illness, particularly those with a family history of psychosis," he said.

"Cannabis use makes almost any mental illness worse."

"Cannabis use is associated with other adverse outcomes like poor education and poor employment outcomes."

DoH Ad Strategy Requires 'Fundamental' Changes

A report by the National Social Marketing Centre, commissioned by the Department of Health [DoH; United Kingdom], has proposed sweeping changes to the department's communications. These would have far-reaching implications for the way the government tackles issues such as obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse…

Key proposals outlined in the report include a shift of focus onto long-term strategies to change behaviour, and the development of more partnerships with the private sector to help deliver targets…

Other recommendations in the report include the implementation of greater co-ordination across DoH activities, and of consumer-behaviour measures to assess the success of campaigns. It also suggested that the COI set up a dedicated social marketing roster.

Education Department Stands Fast On Limiting Students' Milk Choices

Standing by their decision to limit milk choices in school cafeterias despite a 10% drop in consumption, [New York City] school officials say they are more concerned about diabetes than calcium deficiency.

Critics worry that children's calcium intake is suffering as a result of the milk choice cutbacks. Council Member William de Blasio called the 10% consumption drop "drastic" and demanded that the education department reverse the policy…

Mr. de Blasio and other milk advocates are calling on the schools to offer 1% chocolate milk and other flavored milks such as strawberry and vanilla throughout the week at every school. They said they are worried thirsty children who don't like the milk options are turning more often to soda and other sugary beverages, possibly exacerbating the problem of obesity and diabetes instead of mitigating it…

Mr. Berkowitz said the department would continue to monitor milk consumption and that he expected the numbers to turn around as education and social marketing campaigns promoting healthy milk take hold among city children.

Nigeria: In Vanguard of Healthy Living for Nigerians

For over 20 years since it was established in 1985, the Society for Family Health (SFH) has impacted on the lives of Nigerians in many ways through a vibrant and aggressive social marketing strategy. It is an unusual non-governmental organisation working in the area of public health in the country with uncommon expertise and commitment…

He said social marketing is usually targeted at people on low incomes and it consists of three main activities.

According to him, these include research to identify the factors that create barriers to healthy behaviour and assist in the design of interventions to overcome such barriers; Communication to motivate and build necessary skills to allow people to adopt healthy behaviours ; and Distribution of a wide range of high quality healthcare products to all parts of the country, which are sold at affordable prices through a variety of local outlets.

Social Marketing in the News

Government-initiated Family Planning Program Violates Women’s Rights, FPOP Claims

… Family Planning Organization of the Philippines] FPOP and their RH [reproductive health] advocates learned that the government has launched a massive campaign to promote Natural family planning that are decried by RH NGOs as a blatant attack to the right of women to decide freely on the method of their choice.

… Alcantara added that dwindling supplies of contraceptives in many LGUs have forced women to resort to drastic measures such as abortion. Besides, with close to half of the Filipino women living in poverty, many couples, it said are unable to buy contraceptives which used to be available in government clinics for free.

… FPOP also observed that very few LGUs have really initiated steps like engaging in social marketing schemes to ensure the stable supply of contraceptives in their communities.

New CEO for ALAC

The Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) today announced the appointment of Gerard Vaughan as ALAC’s new Chief Executive Officer… He is currently based in the Public Health Directorate at the Ministry of Health in Wellington where he is national project manager for Like Minds, Like Mine - a social marketing campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.

Grassroots Prevention

…There’s definitely more sexual silence, in particular in Latinos who are practicing Catholics, or who are newer immigrants. There is also a high degree homophobia — there’s a prevalence of the old stereotype that HIV/AIDS is a gay disease. The Latino population don’t see themselves at risk; information that researchers are finding out is not getting translated to community norms and beliefs.

One of the exciting aspects of this project was the HIV/AIDS Latino Leadership Summit, where about 130 community members and activists came together. Out of that, the HIV Latino task force has formed — a dozen community members focused on taking the research findings and creating a social norm campaign to de-stigmatize HIV/AIDS in the Latino community, increase condom usage, increase HIV testing, do some social marketing.

Penn State Institute to Lead National Effort to Combat Childhood Obesity

…I-CAAN [The Institute for Collective Advancement of Activity and Nutrition], an outgrowth of Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity (PANA), will employ PANA's successful social marketing model of bringing together many different public and private partners to create simultaneous change in school, community and health-care settings. Unlike many of the isolated programs that occur at one school and hope behavior change will spread from there, PANA has created one of the only coalitions in the country that has applied CDC funding at a statewide and multi-sector level for obesity prevention projects.

Established by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and supported by federal funding from the Centers for Disease Control, PANA has been in operation since 2003. Its accomplishments include the innovative and widespread Keystone Healthy Zone (KHZ) schools campaign, a free annual program that provides schools with access to resources, promotional events and mini-grants for improving nutrition and increasing physical activity. In only three years, KHZ has enrolled an impressive 79 percent of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts, reaching 1,677 schools and 913,000 students in 2006.

Women More Likely to Receive Subprime Home Loans; Disparity Highest for Women with Highest Incomes

Women are more likely to receive subprime home mortgage than men and these higher rates of subprime lending make it harder for households headed by women to build wealth through homeownership. In 2005, about a third of women took out mortgages with interest rates over 7.66 percent (well above the average prime mortgage rate of 5.87 percent) compared to about a quarter of men, according to a new study released today by the Consumer Federation of America.

“The high levels of subprime lending among women compromise their ability to steadily accrue equity by paying off their mortgage – one of the easiest and most effective pathways to building wealth in America,” said Nancy Register, Associate Director of Consumer Federation of America and National Director of America Saves, a social marketing campaign to encourage lower- and moderate-income households to save and build wealth.

Social Marketing in the News

US Agency Launches POU Project in India

The US Agency for International Development plans to launch a two-year pilot project in the Indian city of Chennai to test the effectiveness of point-of-use (POU) water treatment devices in battling gastrointestinal disease… The Point-of-Use Zinc Treatment (POUZN) project, which is expected to begin in 2007, will be implemented through social marketing projects and public-private partnerships.

AIDS Awareness

Care India…is using various film songs and quiz programmes to create awareness…The audience not only enjoy the songs but also take part in quiz programmes based on AIDS awareness. People also receive gifts for the correct answer.

According to social marketing officer of the NGO Varun Kumar, the event is getting overwhelming response from the residents here.

Young African Women Report Sharp Rise in Condom Use

Stronger promotion of condom use could help put the brakes on the global HIV-AIDS epidemic according to a new study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet…

The Bush administration's response to the worldwide AIDS epidemic, known as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, funds global HIV prevention programs. PEPFAR promotes a three-pronged approach to prevention of the sexually- transmitted disease that it calls "ABC," where A stands for abstinence, B for be faithful and C for condoms. PEPFAR administrator Mark Dybul says, "The data are clear that you need all three components" to effectively fight the AIDS epidemic.

But some critics fault the ABC approach for emphasizing abstinence over condom use. Lancet study author John Cleland says the U.S. policy amounts to an embargo on the social marketing and promotion of condoms. "Other donors have to step in and fill that gap, because the unsung hero of the game are the people who make condoms familiar, available and affordable."

Name and Shame - A Sign of Desperation in a Crisis [Swaziland]

… People just need to understand that sexual freedom is eternal vigilance. Taking universally accepted precautions should be the common thread running through our messages-not shaming.

The latter approach creates a tempo of hostility as it easily construed as a personal attack. It clearly does not motivate for positive change since it cannot be embraced in the first instance. Anybody in doubt can prove this through a child. Keep condemning a child for all the mischief and see if there would be any positive behaviour change. Attempting to shame people only makes them stick to their guns, no matter how much they need to shift-for their sake. The resistance created is worse than that created by Anti-retroviral drugs taken inconsistently. We cannot afford to create resistance at this point of the HIV crisis. In a crisis, it is silly to keep saying, but they are resisting the truth. We rather have to package the truth in an appealing way-this has to be social marketing not a church sermon where the truth is not told in love.

Slap Sales Tax on Junk Food, Panel Urges

British Columbians should start paying provincial sales tax on junk food, says a legislative committee which spent the past year studying ways to fight childhood obesity…

The committee also suggested forming a provincial nutrition and exercise council, composed of representatives of all levels of government, healthy-living advocates and food-industry stakeholders.

Key goals of that council would include working with industry to voluntarily reduce fat, sugar and salt contents in products. It would spearhead the creation of new "warning" labels that would appear on package-fronts, and create a "social marketing" campaign against junk food similar to those against tobacco and impaired driving.

The council would also investigate the feasibility of a further tax specifically on junk food, something that Act Now Minister Gordon Hogg has said government is already exploring. However, such an idea has generated mixed support from the public. A recent poll showed that 53 per cent of Canadians are somewhat or strongly opposed to a special tax on junk food as a possible way to fight obesity, while 45 per cent somewhat or strongly support it.

USAID/Nepal Supports the Fight against HIV/AIDS

Nepal Social Marketing and Franchise Project (N-MARC): Achieving adequate coverage of vital health products and services requires both public and private sector involvement in Nepal.  Building on past successes and learning, USAID/Nepal is supporting social marketing/franchising of key family planning, maternal and child health and HIV commodities through the N-MARC project.  The goal is to increase access to key health products for a large segment of the population by providing an affordable and accessible alternative to free government products and services.  This project will continue to target HIV/AIDS prevention, reproductive health and child survival.

Products marketed through the program include clean delivery kits, disinfectant, oral rehydration salts, condoms and a full range of contraceptives for family planning.

See also Nepal News coverage.

Privacy, Security Seen as Key to PHRs

Ensuring the privacy and security of information stored in personal health records while promoting awareness of the benefits of their use and ensuring the portability of the information they contain were named as the key elements necessary for widespread adoption of PHRs during a meeting Tuesday of the consumer-empowerment work group of the American Health Information Community, the health information-technology advisory panel for the HHS…

The panel also determined that mandating PHR functions and setting interoperability standards were not items in its jurisdiction, and it brainstormed on what its role would be in a "social marketing" effort to promote consumer awareness of the benefits of PHRs, as well as the secondary use of the data they contain.

Ashley Judd Uses Celebrity Influence to Fight Global HIV/AIDS

…Judd got involved in YouthAIDS four years ago after a call from founder Kate Roberts, a former ad exec who wanted to use the power of advertising against HIV/AIDS.

As Roberts put it, her job entailed "selling bubble gum and cigarettes to 12-year-olds." But during an AIDS-related project in Romania, she realized the potential synergy of social marketing and disease prevention, so Roberts quit her job and founded a company that used the same tactics to fight the disease. And that meant incorporating celebrities.

Judd had received a plea from Bono the same week to join him in speaking out against AIDS, and she couldn't ignore the coincidence.

"That seemed like a pretty obvious God deal," Judd said.

Namibia: Special CDs and Event in Fighting Aids

Today marks World AIDS Day and the launch of NamibiAlive! - a compilation of CDs featuring awareness messages and songs by popular Namibian artists.

CDs will be distributed free to truck- and combi-drivers throughout Namibia…

The Social Marketing Association (SMA), creator of the highly successful New Start campaign, helped with the promotion of the album by designing and distributing NamibiAlive! posters and stickers. SMA will also use its outreach expertise to distribute the CDs to the more remote regions of Namibia.

Focus Activities Take Aim at Substance Abuse Awareness

…In another effort to raise awareness, Floyd County [Iowa] residents will soon see billboards, advertising and other material giving tips for parents on how to get involved with their children.

Focus has partnered with other communities to launch a social marketing campaign that will reach 10 counties.

“The focus will be getting parents to think a little bit. Do you know where your children are? Do you know who their friends are?” said Orthel. “It’s that education for parents. The more you talk to your kid, the less likely they are to try drugs.”

Before You Shop... Plan Your Spending

With Christmas just weeks away, many Americans are already in the shopping mode. But before you spend, you may want to budget your finances.

To help with your budgeting, Northwoods [Rhinelander, Wisconsin] Saves Executive Director Phil Schlachtenhaufen is hosting a series of six workshops. From planning your spending and handling your credit to retirement and estate planning, Schlachtenhaufen is helping residents take control of their financial situations free of charge…

The goal of Northwoods Saves is to change this situation by helping residents plan their expenses for the long-run and by encouraging parents to get their children more involved in financial affairs at a young age… Northwoods Saves is a non-profit local organization, which is a part of America Saves, a national social marketing program.

Social Marketing in the News

Partnership Delivering Services to Fight HIV/AIDS in the Pacific

The Asian Development Bank is engaged in a partnership that is delivering HIV/AIDS prevention services in 10 small Pacific developing countries…

Activities that have started or are planned include developing a condom social marketing program through mass media, training health care workers, tracking the spread of HIV/AIDS, and designing information and communication materials for vulnerable groups…

Seafarers are among the groups that run a high risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections.

“Preparations are well underway to establish seafarers drop-in centers in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Kiribati,” says Salli Davidson, Project Coordinator from SPC
.
“Drop-in centres are secure, comfortable areas where they can access the Internet, call home, and get access to information on safe sex, as well as get referrals for voluntary HIV testing and counselling.”

TV Show Will Address Depression, Suicide

Wyoming has had the highest rate of suicide in the nation for the past two years and the second highest rate for the past two decades, according to the State Suicide Prevention Task Force.

“Our ultimate goal is to reduce suicide rates across the state by working on confronting the stigma that surrounds mental illness and suicide,” Hotle said. “We live in a cowboy-up kind of state with the perception that mental illness is a character flaw or personal defect. What we’d like to do is rely on all the evidence in the field that depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain and it can be diagnosed and treated.”

…The state is working toward launching a five-year social marketing media campaign to shift common misconceptions and attitudes about mental illness.

Binge-Drink Ads Take a New Tack

The audio features the voice of a female with a heavy Merseyside accent, who says: ‘Pssst! Pssst! Did you know too much alcohol can cause man-boobs and penis shrinkage? Be alcohol-aware.’

The campaign, which also includes posters and stickers in urinals that become visible when wet, is a joint effort from Liverpool [UK] Primary Care Trust and Citysafe, Liverpool’s Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership.

…Darren Gilligan, licensee of the Picture House on London Road, said: “They put the frighteners up you. It’s quite funny. To be fair, all our customers are paying attention to it. They all come out of the toilets saying ‘man boobs’. I don’t think it will stop people buying alcohol though, but it’s getting the message across.”

Jane Thomas, social marketing innovator at Liverpool Primary Care Trust, said the campaign was created in response to past failed attempts to engage with drinkers: “Our research shows that traditional methods of campaigning aren¹t working so we decided to use a revolutionary new approach.”

Public Health Department Launches Campaign to Tackle Obesity

The campaign, called Eat Healthy, Live Active, has one simple message said Melanie Garbarz, a public health planner who is co-ordinating the campaign [Waterloo, Ontario, Canada].

Parents can take steps everyday to ensure their kids develop healthy eating and activity habits that will last a lifetime…

The health unit is employing a social marketing strategy that has worked on other public health campaigns like the reduction of cosmetic pesticide use. "It's about doing behaviour change at a community level," said Garbarz.

It is sending postcards and posters to parents, while also putting together a series of six community workshops in the new year which will provide hands-on cooking classes with demonstrations of simple family-oriented physical activities.

Social Marketing in the News

AHF on STD Crisis: DPH Fiddles While L.A. Burns

At yesterday's weekly Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting, advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), US' largest HIV/AIDS healthcare, prevention and education provider, criticized the County's Department of Public Health for its slow and ill-conceived response following an alarming county report that revealed that syphilis incidence was up 40% in Los Angeles County in 2005…

…six months ago, when the report was first released, the County pledged an immediate response to combat the outbreak, but now presents an ineffective plan that includes increased bureaucracy, additional staff and a social marketing campaign, when what is needed is participation from community groups already engaged in STD screening and prevention:

... "Sadly, we are at a point where syphilis is now endemic in L.A. County," said Michael Weinstein, AHF's President. "We are disappointed by the bureaucratic inertia and lack of transparency that has characterized this process and call on the County to take immediate action by partnering with existing and effective community groups to focus on syphilis screening -- the single most important component of a campaign to eradicate the disease in Los Angeles."

Social Marketing Mulled to Sweep Bohol "Landfill Foes"

Wanting to help sanitize the dirtied talks about the Metro Tagbilaran Cluster Sanitary landfill [Phillipines], cluster members are now mulling a social marketing team that will help scrub the issue clean from host Alburquerque and Mayor Efren Tungol's sleeves.

…Oppositors of the cluster landfill have so far been very effective in voicing out the popular "not in my back yard (NIMBY) advocacy. They have alleged that the plan was mulled without consultation and that their town would never be used as a dumpsite for the refuse that comes from more than ten town cluster members.

Review Shows Gaps in Mental Health Program

“The Border Children’s Mental Health Collaborative [El Paso, TX] has many strengths, including effective wraparound services provided by dedicated care coordinators, a very creative social marketing effort, committed interagency partners, and an emerging and promising youth program,” the report states. “These strengths will be especially important in the next two years as the El Paso Collaborative embarks on a move toward becoming family-driven and develops plans for sustainability.

Governor Blagojevich Salutes Adoptive Families in Illinois on National Adoption Day

During the last four years of the Governor’s administration, [the The Illinois Department of Children and Family Service] has reached out to the public to engage and encourage potential foster and adoptive parents.  An innovative social marketing campaign – “DON’T WRITE ME OFF – FOSTER KIDS ARE OUR KIDS” – aims to change perceptions of these often-forgotten children and youth, and challenges the public to become involved with their local community child welfare agencies.

Social Marketing in the News

Business Insight: Firms Form Unlikely Partnership to Beat Smoking

Your companies are credited with a multifaceted social marketing campaign that has helped reduce or prevent tobacco use among teens, adults and pregnant women. Explain your strategy.

Love: Social marketing is a bottom-up strategy that involves target audiences in campaign research, development and implementation. It's no small feat to create campaigns that impact more than 12 different Utah audiences, ranging from high-risk teens to pregnant women.

Global Challenges | Stigma, Fear Hampers HIV Testing, Treatment in Sierra Leone

Although all district hospitals and multiple sites in the capital, Freetown, provide HIV tests at no cost, the "concept of voluntarily discovering one's HIV status is largely alien," and most people are only tested after being referred to do so by their physician, PlusNews reports. "We are trying to encourage more agencies to become involved in social marketing of HIV testing ... [a]nd if we can secure further funding from the World Bank, we would like to see a model of door-to-door mobilization, as accessibility to testing sites is still a major barrier to some districts," [See also]

UW Receives Grant for Suicide Prevention

“We always have done outreach, helping students with depression and preventing suicide,” David Cozzens, director of the UW [University of Wyoming] Counseling Center and interim dean of students, said. “This gives us the opportunity to have a lot more resources around getting students help….”

The model proposed by Lena Edmunds, UW AWARE program director, is a three-in-one, or public heath approach.

With such an approach, the university will work to identify at-risk individuals by providing Gatekeepers training to key individuals, making the program accessible to the student body as a whole and building a campus and community coalition on suicide prevention.

“(We’re also doing) a large social marketing campaign, really trying to help reduce the stigma of seeking mental health resources,” Edmunds said. “It is okay to seek help.”

The grant proposes suicide prevention in the long run, Cozzens said, “but what we are really doing is getting the word out to folks about how to recognize and identify issues that might indicate a person is struggling.”

Call for Europe to Take the Lead in Revitalising Family Planning Agenda in World's Poorest Countries

…Family planning promotion is unique among medical interventions in the breadth of its potential benefits in terms of achieving the MDGs. It reduces poverty, maternal, and child mortality (in 2000, about 90% of global abortion-related and 20% of obstetric-related mortality an morbidity could have been averted by the use of effective contraception – amounting to 150,000 deaths avoided). It contributes to achieving universal primary schooling, empowers women by reducing the burden of excessive childbearing, and enhances environmental sustainability by stabilising the population of the planet…

Professor Cleland comments: ‘A convincing case can be made that investment in family planning should have a higher priority than investment in HIV prevention and treatment. Yet, current priorities are the reverse. For instance, in Ghana, HIV/AIDS is sucking funds, staff, and political energy from family planning, and this is a country where women are more likely to die of unsafe abortion than of AIDS . . . In Uganda, with a moderately severe longstanding HIV epidemic, population size is nevertheless projected to grow from 30 million today to 61 million by 2025, and further to 127 million by the middle of this century, posing huge difficulties for economic advance…

The keys to effective and sustainable family planning programmes are well established, say the authors. These include high-level political commitment, which is what is lacking at the moment, a broad coalition of support from elite groups, adequate funding, the legitimisation of the idea of smaller families and modern contraceptives through mass media, and the availability of a range of methods which can be accessed via medical facilities, outreach services and social marketing initiatives.

Social Marketing in the News

J&K Quake Victims Turn Potato Cultivators

Tired of waiting for relief from the government and being dependent of charity, victims of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake have found a way to be self-reliant.

This Eid brings with it the hope of high returns from the new brand of potatoes they are cultivating.

Be Kashmiri, eat Kashmiri, a new brand of potatoes that is making a big difference to hundreds of quake-hit families in Jammu and Kashmir….

The US-based Kashmir Earthquake Relief provided the potato seeds, fertilizers, pesticide and expert inputs for the project.

The group is also helping farmers market the potatoes, which are selling at Rs 15 rupees per kilo in Srinagar.

"Our idea was what could be done to help people to use what they already have. Their land, their resources, their hard work and how could we make a small intervention and make a big difference,'' said Usman Rahim, NRI, Kashmiri.

After a bumper crop and successful social marketing buy Kashmiri and eat Kashmiri this Eid has become more cheerful for poor farmers in Kupwara who were hit by the quake in October last year.

Kiwis Spend More on Sweets Than Fruit

The average New Zealand household spends more on confectionery every week than on fresh fruit, according to a report released today…

It shows the average household spends $6.50 on confectionery each week, but only $5.90 on fresh fruit. 

The report also shows last year fast-food chains, restaurants and cafes spent more than $67 million on advertising, compared to the $6.2 million spent on advertising fruit and vegetables…

Last month, prime minister Helen Clark launched Mission-On… [that] includes initiatives to improve the quality of food served in schools, reduce children's exposure to advertising of unhealthy food and a major social marketing campaign.

Jaw-Jaw to Forestall War-War

The role communication can play in facilitating social change and furthering development aims is now recognised. However, what is not so well-valued is that the application of communication technologies in social development is an intricate task which needs professional treatment. In this book independent consultant Avik Ghosh uses his experience of more than 30 years to provide an understanding of the issues that arise in the planning and implementation of communication programmes aimed at bringing about behavioural transformations.

…[Communication Technology and Human Development : Recent Experiences in the Indian Social Sector] is relevant for all those involved in the development of communication and rural development, and useful for students of mass communication, social marketing, advertising, public relations, NGOs and policy makers.

Battle of the Binge 

As the impact of drinking habits in Scotland steadily worsens, tough measures are being drawn up to tackle alcohol abuse…

Some of the measures in the new plan are said to include: a national proof-of-age card, putting pressure on the UK government and the EU to look at the issues of advertising and marketing by the drinks industry; controlling the spread of licensed premises; more funding for early intervention programmes and research; and new training initiatives.

There has also been talk of a ban on alcohol branding on children's sports shirts, and warnings labels on drinks. It is not thought these will be explicitly included in the alcohol action plan, but Kerr recently announced the first joint initiative between the drinks industry and government to produce guidelines on alcohol promotion, responsible drinking, and sports sponsorship…

Jack Law, of Alcohol Focus Scotland, is optimistic that change can be effected in the same way that drink-driving became taboo and seatbelts de rigueur.

It is a view shared by Gerard Hastings, a social marketing expert form Stirling University, who will argue the point at a major UK conference on alcohol next month. He believes there is a real chance for Scotland to lead the way on reversing the country's drinking culture, as long as it is prepared to take on the drinks industry.

Danger of Smoking in Cars Confirmed

New research has highlighted the potential dangers of smoking in cars for non-smoking passengers, particularly children whose lungs are still developing…

During the study, the average level of pollution in fine particles was measured in cars while a front seat passenger smoked a cigarette …“These levels of particulates are similar to those found in a typical smoky bar, and when the window was closed it is at least twice as polluted as the most smoky pub,” Dr Edwards says.

The study, published as a letter in the New Zealand Medical Journal (2006;119:1244) supports the current Health Sponsorship Council social marketing campaign that warns against smoking in the car.

Technorati Tags: Agriculture, Alcohol Advertising, Binge Drinking, Food Marketing, Health Communication, Health Promotion, Passive Smoking, Social Development, Social Marketing

Social Marketing in the News

Government Publishes Its Health Challenge For England

The Health Profile of England, shows the full scale of public health improvements over recent years and highlights the problems we continue to face. Health Challenge England - next steps for Choosing Health sets out public health achievements since 2004 and the next stage of that programme of action…

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint said: ‘… We are learning the lessons of what has and has not worked in influencing the choices people make about their health. Working closely with a range of stakeholders from the health, commercial and voluntary sectors we have found out more about why people don't make healthy choices. Only by knowing this can we be more effective in tackling obesity and targeting the right services to the right people’…

The new Obesity Social Marketing Strategy will be launched next year.

Copies of the Health Profile of England and Health Challenge England - Choosing Health the Next Steps are available on the Department of Health website.

Plan to Tackle HIV Along Highways

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working out a strategy to combat HIV/AIDS by addressing the vulnerability of people and groups travelling along major highways.

The objective of the project, part of NHAI’s social responsibility programme, is to target migrant population known to be at greater HIV risk due to the impact of multiple factors.
These include non-conducive atmosphere, poor family support, poor access to healthcare, unsafe sex and easy access to brothels that have come to dot several highways.

Taking advantage of its natural reach and sphere of influence, the NHAI is planning to launch a massive programme to prevent/control HIV infection and trafficking along some of the highways by addressing risk factors among mobile populations…

The proposal, in itself, is quite broad-based. It is even looking at setting up of condom vending machines along the highways. Surveys are on to identify condom depot holders that can facilitate social marketing of condoms.

(PRODUCT) RED Combats HIV/AIDS by Funneling Portions of Sales to the Global Fund

…"(PRODUCT) RED is unique in the world of what they call 'cause-related marketing,'" said Dan Rosan, program director for public health at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors with over $100 billion in assets. "It's always important to be skeptical of any sort of social marketing or cause-related marketing."

"The key aspect of cause-related marketing is not some nebulous goal such as raising awareness--the key is the money," Mr. Rosan told SocialFunds.com. "The very important thing about (PRODUCT) RED is that the money is substantial--it will probably end up being in the hundreds of millions of dollars over many years, and the money goes to a very important place," namely the Global Fund.

Expert Panel Can't Identify Cause of Floods in Certain Areas

An expert panel couldn't identify why some areas in Hamilton [Ontario, Canada] are more vulnerable to flooding than others.

But Carl Bodimeade, chair of the Independent Community Panel, told members of the Public Works, Infrastructure and Environment committee this week his group has urged city staff to improve its flood reduction plan and examine every location of Hamilton to prevent future dangerous flooding…

Among the panel's 26 recommendations, which were presented to politicians this week, included urging city staff to create a comprehensive Flood Reduction Program to mitigate the impact of severe storms; the city should incorporate 'severe storms' on its emergency response list; improve its communication plan that incorporates a 'social marketing plan', and encourages residents to take steps to avoid future flooding events; city staff should create an education awareness program about the dos and don'ts of flood insurance; and the panel warned politicians that city staff and residents should be prepared that severe rainstorms could become more frequent due to global warming and climate change.

Workshop Aims to End AIDS Stigma

A workshop to train public officials and social activists in managing behavioural change towards people with HIV/AIDS opened in HCM City {Vietnam] on Tuesday…

Social Marketing Techniques in Behaviour Change Communication, as the workshop is titled, seeks to impart the skills needed to evaluate, improve, and manage behaviour change campaigns.

Behaviour change communication has been identified as a critical component of the Government’s National Strategy on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control to 2010.

Province Offers a Little Help With the Heating Bill

The cost of buying a high-efficiency furnace just got up to $750 cheaper for Nova Scotians.

The province announced a furnace rebate program Friday, the first initiative of its new agency responsible for helping people conserve energy…

"We’re trying to change a culture here in Nova Scotia," he said.

"A big part of Conserve Nova Scotia is going to be about marketing — social marketing."

Technorati Tags: Energy Conservation, Floods, HIV/AIDS, National Health Policy, Obesity, Project Red, Social Marketing

Social Marketing in the News

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.

See also here and here.

Technorati Tags: Children's Rights, Family Planning, Health Communication, Health Education, Healthy Living, Obesity, Parks, Physical Activity, Pregnancy Prevention, Social Marketing

Social Marketing in the News

Region's Catholic Communicators Share Marketing Success Stories

Catholic communicators touted their successes at an international meeting that attracted Catholic audiovisual producers from all over Asia…

The Asian unit of SIGNIS organized the seminar. SIGNIS is a worldwide Catholic association for broadcast, electronic and new media professionals as well as academics and others in the field of communications.

Speakers discussed social marketing, which they defined as employing commercial marketing techniques in promoting values and value-based products.

They agreed that the main problem with Church media centers is their inability to successfully market their products.

Ads With Heat: HIV Campaigns Using Controversial Images Debated at Forum

HIV is a gay disease. Intrigued by that text? Offended? Does it make you resolve to practice safe sex in the future? That phrase is part of an HIV prevention campaign that recently began in Los Angeles and it is intended to wake up a complacent gay community…

Better World has created a number of these social marketing efforts to address sexually transmitted diseases or HIV among gay men. Some have been popular, others controversial.

At a September 26 forum … the effectiveness of such campaigns was discussed and debated. The forum did not reach a conclusion about whether or not this blend of public health with marketing and advertising works. What was clear is that objections to some ads are as likely to come from the gay and AIDS communities as they are to come from America’s right wing.

UK Food Industry, Government Form Nutrition Steering Group

The UK’s Food Standards Agency has joined up with the Department of Health to form a Nutrition Strategy Steering Group (NSSG) that aims to improve public health through diet and nutrition policies. Its first project: assessing nutritional front of pack labelling schemes…

Also on the NSSG's agenda is the reformulation of food to make convenience foods healthier, and make healthier options more mainstream…

The NSSG will also take responsibility for initiatives to promote food to children…

The fourth item on the NSSG's agenda is the Healthy Living Social Marketing Campaign that aims to reduce obesity through a combination of promoting exercise and promoting a balanced diet.

Safety Officer Mooted for Strip

Concierges could be introduced into clubs on Townsville's [Australia] nightclub strip if findings of a safety audit of the area are accepted and implemented.

A survey of revellers on Flinders St East over two months in July and August found people would feel safer if they had someone they could approach inside a club…

Ms Kennedy said the reason for the survey was to develop a social marketing project which promoted the area as a great place to go out where people felt safe.

She said the program was based on a safe project in Toowoomba which audits venues and offers awards to those venues which prove to be 'caring and sharing nightclubs'.

'Big Food' Marketing Guru to Act on Obesity

A marketing expert who used to help sell products criticised for being high in fat, salt and sugar has been put in charge of the Government's forthcoming campaign to tackle obesity in children.

Chris Holmes, a former marketing executive with Nestle and Kraft, is heading the Department of Health's 'healthy living social marketing team'. He leads a group of civil servants who are drawing up a long-awaited programme of action on obesity that ministers plan to unveil in the spring. The disclosure raises questions about whether the strategy will be tough enough on such firms, and how someone from 'big food' got the job.

Technorati Tags: Health Communictions, Health Education, HIV, Nutrition, Obesity, Social Marketing

Social Marketing in the News

ZIMBABWE: HIV Prevalence Decline - Will It Last?

News of Zimbabwe's declining HIV prevalence rates have been met with scepticism and confusion, particularly in view of the country's economic and political climate. Can this good news be attributed to behavioural change or skewed statistics?

…One clear example of behaviour change is increased condom use. During the 1990s, the public sector was the principal provider of male condoms but social marketing now accounts for more than a half of all condoms distributed. The fact that most condoms were now purchased rather than freely distributed, made it more credible that people were using condoms more frequently, he said.

"Data from local scientific research studies in Manicaland [province] indicate recent delays in onset of sexual activity, reductions in rates of sexual partner change and, for women with high rates of partner change, further increases in consistent condom use," a UNAIDS review on the HIV decline in Zimbabwe noted.

Student Social Marketing Study Sparks U of T Energy Saving Campaign

Smart marketers are tapping into the power of social networking to do everything from recruiting to selling soda, so savvy U of T [University of Toronto] students have decided to use the same strategies to sell their peers on energy saving behaviours. Their pilot study, which took environmental psychology research and applied it to student residence life, was so successful in reducing energy consumption in a residence that the University of Toronto decided to broadly implement the plan...

“Out-of-the-blue advertising blitzes and other kinds of ‘anonymous’ information campaigns don’t work to get people to change their behaviour for the better,” explains Chris Caners, sustainability officer. “This approach, called community-based social marketing, uses existing social networks to distribute information or prompt people to change.”

Link to Project Summary

Catholic Communicators Stress Social Marketing to Spread Values

An international seminar of Catholic communicators has stressed the need to promote human values through social marketing… About 100 delegates from 16 Asian nations attended the seminar, which sought ways to use social marketing techniques to promote social values. Social marketing is a concept developed in the 1970s that advocates the application of commercial marketing techniques and principles to foster social change…

Father Raj asserted that social marketing will not succeed unless it involves personal example. By way of example, he said Mahatma Gandhi was able to mobilize the entire nation because he lived by the values he preached…

Conrad Saldanha, a marketing expert who also spoke at the seminar, pointed to the use of social marketing in influencing attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of individuals and organizations to achieve social objectives such as safe driving, cleanliness, an end to smoking and conservation of energy and water.

Archbishop Marampudi Joji of Hyderabad [India], who addressed the opening session, identified a need to communicate the essence of the Gospel "in everything, without distorting truth," in the modern market-dominated culture.

Condom Drive for High Risk Groups Launched

A ‘Use condom campaign’ was launched by the Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust [India] … The campaign is aimed at the most vulnerable groups such as sex workers, promiscuous individuals and communities who face discrimination and the stigma of use of condoms and HIV/AIDS. The campaign is targeted towards high risk groups in 22 high prevalence districts mapped by the State government.

This campaign is undertaken by the Maharashtra Condom Social Marketing Project (MCSMP), which is working with a focus on high risk areas of 22 high prevalence districts of Maharashtra for the population at highest risk to HIV.

Campus Community Bar Retail Coalition Discusses Alcohol Issues

The Campus Community Bar Retail Coalition met Wednesday afternoon to discuss several alcohol related issues in the Purdue and West Lafayette  [Indiana] communities…

Tammy Loew, Health Advocacy Coordinator for the Student Wellness Office, also reported to the group that Purdue had received a $300,000 grant from the Department of Education to begin a program to reduce high-risk drinking of first-year students. She said a program has been developed to curb these high risk behaviors.

"It includes a workshop, several late night events, a social marketing campaign and a parent component," she said.

MSU-Billings Students to Hold Fundraiser

Montana State University-Billings students in a social marketing class are in the beginning stages of a marketing campaign to gain support for the building of bicycle lanes, sidewalks and bike paths in Billings…

The student-designed marketing campaign is meant to raise awareness of how unsafe the roads are for cyclists and walkers and to show how biking and walking can benefit individuals as well as the environment.

Technorati Tags: Alcohol Abuse, Catholic Church, Energy Conservation, Environmental Change, Health Communication, Health Education, HIV/AIDS, Physical Activity, Social Marketing, Values

Social Marketing in the News

Seal of Approval

…In the coming weeks, MacKay will broadcast the skilled trade careers message at every high school on the [Prince Edward] Island, with a special emphasis on educating female students about the wealth of skilled trade career possibilities.

“I think a large part (of my job) is a social marketing campaign because there is only nine per cent of girls in (skilled) trades now. And we’re having a skilled (worker) shortage facing us so half the population is pretty much opting out of that,” she says.

Perdices Pushes for Ban on Sale of Water to Ships

Dumaguete [Philippines] Mayor Agustin Perdices Saturday said he will ask the City Council to pass an ordinance regulating the sale of water to ships in a move aimed at protecting the limited water supply in the city.

"We don't know how long our water supply will last," he said at a press conference launching the social marketing campaign of the Dumaguete wastewater project. See also

Officers Get Mixed Reviews

…Among the suggestions listed to curb underage drinking, the work group recommended that the [University of California, San Diego] administration implement exams throughout the week, including on Fridays, to encourage students to attend class… 

The group suggested investigating several new methods to wage a “social marketing” campaign on the RSOs’ [Residential Security Officers'] behalf. In order to improve the body’s image, the report proposed that resident advisers handle more noise complaints and lock-outs on their own.

Cut-outs Mark Beginning of Awareness Campaign

[Tufts University] Freshman Louis Mittel walked by Tisch Library yesterday evening. Something caught his eye as he walked down the steps from the library patio: a decorated life-size cardboard cut-out of a person. Painted on the cardboard, a message read, "Got consent? Even Captain Morgan gets consent!"

"It just seems pretty bizarre," Mittel said.

Mittel's confusion is just one reaction to what is the beginning of a semester-long social marketing campaign that uses advertising strategies to address social issues. In this case, the campaign aims to foster discussion about issues including rape, drug use and alcohol use on campus.

Kenya: All Set for DDT Use As Ban Lifted

But if Dr Kochi [head of the malaria programme at WHO] has his way, PSI's social marketing approach to malaria control could also change. Dr Kochi wants to standardise mosquito nets so that, instead of a welter of competing styles that must be home-dunked in pesticide, a few makers of factory-coated nets, which kill insects for years longer, are left to compete on price. He dismisses the "social marketing," concept, in which nets are branded and sold cheaply, instead of being given away.

The World's Biggest Short Film 

The 1 Second Film project is actually an ambitious 5 phase program through 2011 (on 11/11/11 to be exact), culminating in the creation of the 11,111 Second Film - an animated feature film created by millions of people during thousands of simultaneuous events around the world.

In each phase, the campaign has chosen a different cause - from women's rights in the first phase to global warming and global poverty in subsequent years.  As it stands, the project is a wonderfully creative concept with hooks to engage a loyal community of "producers," an ambitious mission and a focus on encouraging collaboration (both in creating art and funding the project).  It is another in a string of highly creative and ambitious social marketing projects online led by visionary individuals that want to do more to help a social cause than simply write a check to an existing charity.

Unhealthy Foods Get Chop From Tuck Shops

Unhealthy food will be banned from school tuck shops next year under [New Zealand] policies designed to help control a worsening obesity epidemic...

It is part of the $76.1 million committed in this year's Budget for anti-obesity work over four years.

Others are nutrition training for teachers, guidelines - yet to be written - on food advertising to children, expanding the Push-Play social marketing campaign to promote "screen-free" time, encouraging public servants, including at the Ministry of Health, to lead by example in being more physically active and using music, screen and sport stars to promote healthy choices to young people. See also

Push for Condom Use in State

The campaign is aimed at the most vulnerable groups like sex workers, promiscuous individuals and communities who face discrimination and stigma of HIV/AIDS.

It is targeted towards high-risk groups in 22 high prevalence districts mapped by the government and is being undertaken by the Maharashtra Condom Social Marketing Project [India].

Much Has Changed During AIDS Walk’s 15 Years

Ms Galloway says as the realities surrounding HIV/AIDS have shifted so too has the tone of the walk.
With the advent of anti-retroviral treatment in 1996, the outcome changed for those infected. Ms Galloway says people are now living longer and this in turn has changed the public perception.

“This has made prevention work more important than ever as many people in our communities have relaxed their guard or even think there is a cure for HIV/AIDS,” she says.

“Our messages don’t change. We promote safer sex and for some people that may mean abstinence but certainly condom use, the hope for microbicides, and social marketing campaigns that focus on behaviour change strategies so people are more aware of the risks of transmission for themselves and others.”

Technorati Tags: Alcohol Abuse, Drug Use, Health Communication, Health Education, HIV/AIDS, Malaria Control, Obesity, Physical Activity, Rape, Skilled Trade Careers, Social Causes, Social Marketing, Underage Drinking, Water Conservation

Social Marketing in the News

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

Social Marketing in the News

Making Prevention Work: Abstinence and Partner Reduction Reviewed at World AIDS Conference

Kevin O’Reilly from the WHO reviewed 11 rigorously-structured studies among adolescents in five African countries, India and the Philippines…

O’Reilly called the results ‘significant but minimal’ and said the trials had worked better in changing gender attitudes than in reducing risk behaviour. (In a similar review, which unlike the abstinence study was not chosen for presentation, O’Reilly found that four out of five African trials of condom social marketing – none of them recent - produced some degree of condom use increase, two of them significant).

Ethics to a Tee

Why does wearing a political shirt feel so politically active and effective? According to Alvin Wasserman, a 30-year veteran of social marketing, campaign or message shirts can be effective -- as long as they drive the wearers/readers to someplace where they can act. "Shirts need to link to something else. A good website needs to be available with great interactivity so the effect of the shirts goes past a couple of washes."

World in Danger of Missing Sanitation Target; Drinking-Water Target Also at Risk, New Report Shows

The world is in danger of missing targets for providing clean water and sanitation unless there is a dramatic increase in the pace of work and investment between now and 2015, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. The situation is becoming particularly acute in urban areas, where rapid population growth is putting great pressure on the provision of services and the health of poor people…

From the report comes one example of a success story in terms of raising coverage. In Ethiopia, the Amhara region had a coverage rate for access to sanitation services of only 3.8% in 2003, and only 100 latrines were being constructed annually in each district. In that year, the government initiated a social marketing campaign which increased community knowledge and understanding of sanitation and its linkages to health. Community demand for latrines sky-rocketed, and by 2005, the average number of latrines constructed per district was 26,400.

Upcoming Conscience Vote on Drinking Age

Associate [New Zealand] Health Minister Damien O'Connor said today the upcoming conscience vote on whether to raise the drinking age was keenly anticipated…

"The issue that concerns me, as it does others, is that people aged under 18 are drinking. We must continue to do all we can to stop this.

"The government has funded a huge social marketing campaign to promote responsible drinking – at all ages, sting operations have been mounted, and there have been closures and prosecutions of businesses selling alcohol illegally to people younger than 18. This work is fully supported by the Police and will continue."

45% of Hoosier College Students Binge Drink

The study, commissioned by the Indiana Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking, is the first one done on college drinking habits and drug use in the state. More than 7,600 students were surveyed on 14 college campuses, including Purdue…

The university formed an alcohol task force made of campus and community partners in December 2004 to examine alcohol use on campus, which she thinks puts Purdue ahead of the curve in addressing the problem.

Purdue then applied for and received a $300,000 grant from the Department of Education that will be used to sponsor a workshop next week on high-risk behavior among first-year students and for a social marketing campaign.

Students will play a large role in developing the campaign's messages, said Loew, who presented at the conference in Indiana where the results were released.

The Connection Between Good Grades and Good Nutrition: Part II

…Purchasing healthy foods and preparing nutritious meals are only part of the solution. It may be unrealistic to eliminate our children's exposure to advertising and it can be a challenge to control what our kids eat when they are outside the home, at school or with friends. So, as parents, we must develop counter-programming to help offset the advertising messages and peer pressure children face in situations that make choosing healthy foods awkward.

There are many resources for parents who want to create their own “social marketing” to help their children be better guardians of their own health.

County Expands HIV/AIDS Testing

In response to increasing rates of HIV infection in Santa Clara County [California], the Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved plans to expand HIV/AIDS testing for high-risk populations in the county…

As part of the $375,000 HIV/AIDS plan, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors allocated $75,000 in funding to conduct social marketing. More accurate numbers of those living with HIV/AIDS will allow the county to receive appropriate federal and state funding for services.

Technorati Tags: Binge Drinking, Health Communication, Health Education, HIV/AIDS, Nutrition, Sexual Behavior, Social Marketing, Underage Drinking, Water Sanitation

Social Marketing in the News

Lunch with Chef Ann

Chef Ann insisted to me that teaching kids about good food "has to be part and parcel of an education program. And all the stakeholders have to participate: the administration of the school, the food services people, the educators, the children and their parents. You have to teach everybody. You need an educational component and you need social marketing and community outreach to teach parents that letting kids eat Pop Tarts, potato chips and Coke for breakfast is really bad for them."

Reducing Infant Mortality in Africa

A simple $3 insecticide-treated mosquito net for every African child, for example, could reduce overall child mortality rates by 20 per cent by protecting against malaria, the number-one killer of children in Africa. The net works as a barrier between the body and mosquitoes that carry malaria.

Even when they are available, these nets are beyond the means of the average African family, yet some donors recommend selling them under an approach known as “social marketing.” However, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the UN Secretary- General’s special adviser on the MDGs, argues that they should be heavily subsidized or given away free. “Mothers and children are dying of a completely preventable disease because we are trying to sell bed nets. Let me urge the end of social marketing today.”

Strategy & Management: Richard Baker - Ethical Recruitment Attracts CEOs Too

…CSR is a good strategic fit for Boots. After all, as a healthcare company, its business revolves around improving the quality of life of its customers.

Not only is Boots one of the UK’s most trusted brands, it is also one of its most responsible, according to this year’s BITC index which places the company at number ten overall, and as a top retailer.

Boots trades on its healthcare experience – “the ladies in white coats” whose advice can be trusted.

This expertise differentiates it from cheaper supermarket competitors. It also means that the company can take a lead in public health campaigns.

In January, Boots helped half a million people quit smoking, through weekly consultations with pharmacists in store, as part of its “Change one thing” social marketing campaign.

Minors: Alcohol is Readily Found

…a $300,000 grant Purdue just received from the Department of Education… will be used for a comprehensive approach to address high-risk and underage drinking in first- and second-year college students… A workshop for students, campus officials and community leaders will be held later this month. Purdue also will use the grant to evaluate intervention programs and for a social marketing campaign…

Too Much 'Respect' to Curb Infections? 

"There's never been a campaign like this in Canada," says Winston Husbands, co-director of the African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO), the group behind the campaign.

"Campaigns in the past never really spoke to people from Africa and the Caribbean."

Just over a year old, the group is funded by the AIDS bureau of the Ministry of Health. Its massive social marketing campaign includes a website, print ads and spots on television and radio, all the way from Windsor to Thunder Bay, at a preliminary cost of $450,000.

Technorati Tags: Alcohol, Boots, Corporate Social Responsibility, Health Commuinication, Health Education, HIV/AIDS, Infant Mortality, Nutrition Education, Smoking, Social Marketing

Social Marketing in the News

B-School Grads to Promote Condoms

In a first of its kind decision, the ministry's National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) has decided to create a special Technical Resource Group (TRG) comprising management graduates specialising in finance and marketing from B-schools and consulting firms, to help the ministry identify new avenues of popularising the condom…. The team will have the best brains coming out of top Indian business schools. They will not work out of the health ministry but will be housed at the Hindustan Latex's social marketing office…[It] would consist of experts on marketing development, finance and communication.

Study: College Students Practice Safer Drinking Habits

"The post-graduate market is getting much more competitive and because of that, students are recognizing what they need to do to succeed. This is contributing to a trend toward more safe and healthy college behavior, as well as the avoidance of high-risk alcohol use."

The refining of policies and enforcement of these policies has also impacted the number of students who drink irresponsibly, Loew said. There is also an increased push towards educating students on how alcohol impacts their lives.

Loew said that Purdue recently received a $300,000 grant that will utilize a comprehensive program to help professors, teaching assistants, advisers and parents to discourage students from underage drinking.

"This is a social-marketing campaign," she said. "There are a lot of components, and we hope to address the issue from every facet possible."

Column: Make PSAs Stand Out in the Crowd

In a media environment of countless social marketing messages, how do you develop one that will be remembered by your target audience and have a lasting impact on your cause?

An increasingly cluttered media environment in recent years has produced more competition for nonprofits, government agencies and others to communicate such messages. The Advertising Council has responded by focusing on areas integral to creating effective public service announcements:
• Develop the highest quality creative.
• Conduct targeted media outreach.
• Complement PSAs with public relations and integrated communications programs.

technorati tags: Condoms, Drinking, Health_Communication, Health_Promotion, PSAs, Social_Marketing

Social Marketing in the News

Sex Taboos Hamper Safety Message for Gay Chinese

…In China, homosexuality, while no longer officially considered a mental disorder, is still an off limits subject for many. That taboo often extends to discussions about AIDS and condom use for men who have sex with men… "Sex is taboo, and condoms have mainly been used as part of family planning rather than for safe sex," said Lee Folland, a graduate student doing research at Cambridge University on the social marketing of condoms in China.  In a Beijing survey, only 15 percent of 482 men who had sex with men understood that they were at risk of contracting HIV, according to a 2005 report by the United Nations' UNAIDS. [More coverage.]

San Francisco Gay Clubs to ‘Bar AIDS’

Thirteen bars in seven San Francisco neighborhoods will donate a portion of their sales on Thursday, Aug. 24, to support the work of the STOP AIDS Project… STOP AIDS and several bars and clubs have worked together on social marketing campaigns, fundraisers, and safe-sex workshops as early as 1984 and as recently as last June to mark 25 years of HIV/AIDS.

Consumers Demanding Firms Support Charities

In previous years, companies were eyed with skepticism when they tried to use ties with charities to advertise their goods. For some reason, consumers disliked the fact that for-profit firms were making donations to sell more of their products. It seemed that such firms should be making donations, but not in a high-profile way, and not linked to product sales.

Today, many firms are actually creating links with charities in order to give their brands more substance. McDonald’s started it years ago with Ronald McDonald house. Tim Hortons expanded this notion, not just with their camps for underprivileged children, but through very heavy sponsorship of children’s sports teams, from hockey to soccer… While there is certainly more money going toward a variety of philanthropic endeavours, firms are still very concerned about the marketing return from social marketing.

Council to Review Report on Meth

A long-awaited report on what steps the city should take to combat the devastating effects of methamphetamine will be presented to the [Long Beach, CA] City Council Tuesday night…

Also scheduled for Tuesday's council meeting is a presentation on a much beefier report prepared by a group of local health care and research organizations… The health organizations advocate a social marketing campaign centered on the drug and more support groups for parents, students and meth users.

Condoms Critical in Reducing HIV Prevalence in Zimbabwe

Although measuring condom use is difficult, many studies in Zimbabwe show that the condom is the prevention method of choice among single, sexually active men. They appear to be relying on condoms as the prevention method of choice for non-marital relationships. Condoms also serve a dual purpose—both as a contraceptive and as a prophylactic.

Although a causal relationship linking condom use to the HIV decline is hard to trace, trend data show that as condom distribution has expanded dramatically -- from just over 20 million in 1994 to over 80 million in 2004 — the HIV infection rate has slowed and even dipped among certain groups.

The female condom has also been enormously successful since women’s advocacy groups lobbied for its introduction in 1997. The number of female condoms publicly distributed and socially marketed increased from about 200,000 in 2000 to a peak of 1.4 million in 2002—before declining to just under 1.2 million in 2005. Today, the female condom is widely available in Zimbabwe’s urban areas, and the Government is now seeking to meet the needs of women living in more remote, rural regions.

technorati tags: Health_Communications, Health_Education, HIV/AIDS, Methamphetamine, Social_Marketing, Social_Responsibility