Car Pool Hoping to Make a Splash
The
transportation association [of Marlborough, MA] encourages companies' employees
to visit the organization's Web site, where they can enter their carpooling
preferences into a Geographic Information Service database, which connects
potential car poolers based on criteria such as where they live or whether they
smoke.
The group's goal is to reduce traffic congestion and improve
air quality, said Michele Brooks, senior associate of TransAction Associates.
"It's a type of social marketing," Brooks said of
the carpooling programs. "It's making people change their behaviors."
Getting Efficient Will End Winters of Discontent
Unlike us [New Zealand],
many other developed countries are committed to finding ways of using less
electricity to produce more economic output. And they are doing so by tackling
the demand side of the electricity equation through improved efficiency and
reduced consumption…
At the height of the crisis, California was short of 5000 megawatt-hours at peak times, faced the prospect of 34 days
of rolling blackouts through the summer of 2001 and was estimated to have lost
$US16 billion.
The state government responded with a variety of measures
including a conservation programme called "Flex Your Power". Funded
by the state, but designed and run by McGuire & Co, a consultancy
specialising in social marketing and environmental campaigns, this quickly
persuaded users to reduce their peak power demand each day by 5570mwh, or 14%.
In the process, 33% of residential and 27% of commercial customers said they
saved 20% or more on their electricity bills.
The biggest challenge, though, was to ensure the behaviour
change was permanent. That has been achieved through constant publicity
campaigns to remind consumers of the economic benefits.
City Quiz Tests Residents' Pandemic Readiness
Those who correctly answer a five-question quiz have the
chance to win a $500 gift certificate card from St. Laurent Shopping Centre or
emergency kits. The online quiz titled "Are you ready? to win" asks
general questions about preparing for emergencies.
Some social marketing experts are questioning the city's
strategy for preparing residents for an emergency. Phillip Haid, vice-president
of Toronto's Manifest
Communications, says the contest trivializes a serious issue.
However, public health officials say the brochure and quiz
are just the first phase of a campaign to increase awareness of the issue. The city also plans to air television ads
about pandemic preparedness in the next few months.
Consumer Federation of America Releases Blueprint For Lowering Gasoline Costs Through Reduced Oil Consumption
And Imports
This morning the Consumer Federation of America (CFA)
released a report -- "Blueprint for Energy Security: Addressing Consumer
Concerns about Gasoline Prices and Supplies by Reducing Consumption and
Imports" -- that advocates a broad array of measures to reduce gasoline
consumption, related consumer expenditures, and oil imports…
The report recommends
the development of the kind of public education/social marketing campaign,
which helped reduce smoking and drunk driving and dramatically increased safety
belt use. This campaign would build support for meaningful institutional and
individual changes that result in increased fuel efficiency.
Smokefree Campaign Moves from New York to Gisborne
Mr Bradbrook is keen to help revitalize local smokefree
group Taki Tahi Toa Mano. He was in Gisborne for its launch two years ago and
now wants to pass on some of the ideas and tools Te Reo Marama uses to raise
awareness of a smokefree world.
“In the last few years smokefree campaigns have been about
social marketing. Let’s put out a few posters or multi media about the dangers
of smoking and the public will get it. While there is still a place for that,
we also need to focus on practical things, and giving groups the tools and
resources they need to do that. Of course it always comes down to money.”
AIDS Awareness for Metro Workers
The Delhi [India]
Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will soon start a four-year long AIDS awareness
programme for the 10,000-strong workforce engaged in building the Capital’s
metro network.
DMRC has asked its contractors to implement the plan, as per
which around 100 peer educators will be selected from the workforce and sent
for professional training to the appointed agency.
Once trained, these educators will act as focal points for
information and education of the workmen throughout the contract period. DSACS
will also help promote social marketing of condoms among workmen.
Street plays, magic shows, posters in regional languages,
pocket calendars, flash cards, brochures and interactive sessions will be used
to spread AIDS awareness.
Stronger and More Direct Diabetes Policies
Today, in its submission to the Health Select Committee’s
Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity Inquiry, Diabetes New Zealand insisted that all people at high risk of diabetes should be screened. Diabetes New
Zealand also called for adequate diabetes
treatment and well-funded prevention programmes.
“There is a compelling requirement for a comprehensive
strategy including regulation, pricing and a powerful social marketing campaign
be adopted if New Zealand is to reduce the obesity and Type 2 Diabetes epidemics,” said Murray Dear,
President of Diabetes New Zealand.
Abstinence Stigma
Pastor Ssempa said, "[Ugandan] President Museveni
actually traveled from village to village with a bullhorn. . . . The first lady
. . . was vocal about the program and all public and many private agencies were
involved. . . . The health ministry, the local health agencies, the schools,
the churches, and other faith-based organizations, the newspapers and the
radio—all were involved. And the program worked. HIV/AIDS incidence rates fell
in the late 1980s and the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate fell from 21 percent in 1992
to around 6 percent in 2002. I know of no other country which has cut its
HIV/AIDS prevalence rate by two-thirds."
Pastor Ssempa lamented to the [U.S. House Committee on
International Relations] a new enemy threatening to hijack his country's
success story: "That enemy is the Western belief that condoms can end the
HIV/AIDS epidemic." He said, "Condom social marketing, the primary
HIV/AIDS prevention method promoted by . . . Western donors for the last 18
years, has not worked."
LSSI Joins ‘Don’t Write Me Off’ Campaign to Increase
Community Involvement in Foster Children’s Lives
Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) will kick off
its participation in “Don’t Write Me Off,” a groundbreaking social marketing
campaign aimed at encouraging residents across Illinois to support youth in foster care and foster care agencies…
The statewide “Don’t Write Me Off” campaign features
television ads, a Web site, a toll-free resource number and other materials.
Its key message is that people can make a difference in the lives of foster
children in a number of ways, such as volunteering at schools or with programs
that serve foster children, supporting LSSI and the 80 other community-based
child welfare agencies in Illinois or by becoming foster parents.
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