Social Marketing in the News
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Juliet Schor, sociology professor at Boston College, shows that 10 to 13-year-old Boston kids (her sample group consisted of 300 children) are extremely materialistic and entirely incorporated into `junk food' and what she refers to as `junk culture' - a mixture of MTV, designer label clothes and too many toys.
High consumer involvement is a significant cause of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and psychosomatic complaints, she writes. Also, "Higher levels of consumer involvement result in worse relationships with parents." The more designer label-conscious and materialistic the children, the more they tended to fight and argue with parents who didn't `seem' to have enough.
There is no evidence that commercialisation is making our kids sick, says Diana Carradine, Executive Director of the Concerned Children's Advertisers (CCA), a Toronto-based social marketing agency which promotes responsible advertising. Its 25 industry members include McDonald's and Kelloggs, who support CCA, which, in turn, produces educational tools and socially relevant TV ads against bullying and for promoting self-esteem.
Shifting the blame away from advertising, she says: "It is each family's choice to buy or not buy... Advertising is about respect and choice," she insists. Banning ads is not the solution, she says, illustrating that in Quebec - the only province so far to ban ads for children under 12 - the rate of obesity remains the same among children.
This shows that no single factor is responsible for the junk food culture or materialistic values in our children. "We all have a role to play and need to explore our own roles." She represents the group that opposes the `nanny State syndrome'.
A Program to Fight Malaria in Africa Draws Questions
Though its budget for fighting malaria has risen since 1998 to $90 million from $14 million, the United States' foreign aid agency is spending 95 percent of the money on consultants and less than 5 percent on mosquito nets, drugs and insecticide spraying to fight the disease.
The spending priorities have touched off an intense debate between the agency, the United States Agency for International Development and its critics, who include two of the Senate's most conservative Republicans.
In his testimony before the subcommittee, Dr. Attaran cited an example of what he considered wastefulness: NetMark, a $65 million, seven-year program for "social marketing" of mosquito nets in Africa.
Instead of giving away goods that prevent disease, like mosquito nets, condoms or rehydrating salts, social marketers buy advertising, conduct public education campaigns and create brands, hoping to promote the goods at low prices in the commercial marketplace. The social marketers maintain that poor people value goods more when they pay for them instead of getting them free, and that small entrepreneurs can benefit from the sales.
Critics say this means that aid goes only to the "richest of the poor" in cities that advertising reaches, not to rural villagers who bear the greatest malaria burden.
PEPFAR-funded NGOs Present Progress at 2nd South African AIDS Conference
A diverse group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), funded by the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), presented their first year’s progress at a satellite conference of the 2nd South African AIDS Conference in Durban. Funded projects focused on providing aid to orphans and vulnerable children, `faith-based` HIV prevention services, voluntary counselling and testing services, collaborations with traditional healers, operational research into the long-term success of PMTCT programmes, nurse-driven antiretroviral therapy, and antiretroviral treatment delivery in an antenatal clinic.
Miriam Mhazo, programme director of the Society of Family Health (SPH), described the New Start (not-for-profit) Voluntary HIV Counselling and Testing (VCT) service, which she says uses social marketing to create demand. PEPFAR funding has helped New Start set up a network of high quality VCT sites (currently there are three in the city centres of Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town) as well as a new mobile VCT clinic service to complement the Department of Health’s testing efforts.
The tests cost 25 Rand (~$4) at the stationary clinics (though the service is offered even if the client cannot afford to pay), 120 Rand (~$20) when the mobile clinic goes to a business, but is free whenever the mobile clinic is stationed outside of a community. Since being established late last year, the clinics have seen 3326 clients, of which 98% chose to get tested and 21% have been HIV-positive. Uptake has increased substantially since TV ads for the service began running in April this year.
Hep Team Holds Kick-Off Event
On June 7, Hep Team Chicago marked the official launch of its summer program with a kick-off event at Roscoe's Tavern and Café, 3356 N. Halsted. Throughout the summer, the team plans to target men who have sex with other men and put themselves at risk of contracting hepatitis A and B.
[T]here is now this wide-ranging campaign, which has everything from posters to a Web site ( www.HepTeamChicago.com ) to spread awareness. Amy Maggio, Hep Team Chicago’s public relations coordinator, added that “this kind of community outreach effort couldn’t have happened without several organizations, including Howard Brown Health Center ( HBHC ), the Center on Halsted, the Task Force on the South Side, the Hep Team, and the [ CDPH ]. A campaign like this is based on social marketing and the message is really clear.”
Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia Named Tops in North American Safety Advertising
The American Association of State Compensation and Insurance Funds (AASCIF) named the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) of Nova Scotia Best in Show for its "Work Safe. For Life." social marketing campaign at its annual conference in New Orleans.
Campaigners Target Loan Adverts Being Broadcast During Children’s Cartoons
Children are being exposed to adverts for loans during cartoons in a move which is being slammed for educating them that debt is normal.
The claim comes from outraged parents and politicians who tomorrow will launch a national campaign aimed at stopping channels such as the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network allowing advert slots to be bought by loan firms which, they say, give the impression that crippling debts are a common problem that is easily solved by accessing more credit.
The campaign will unveil research which suggests one in 10 children has advised his or her parents to take out consolidation loans, and 32% of parents have heard their children repeating slogans and singing jingles from credit adverts.
Martine Stead, of the Institute of Social Marketing at the University of Stirling, said the concept of pester power has been well-proved. Food is the most common item children view advertising for then pester parents about: it wouldn’t be surprising if a similar thing works for other products.
Students Join Fight Against Sexual Diseases
Four senior students of International School in Suva have joined hands with Marie Stopes International Pacific to raise awareness on sexually transmitted diseases by selling condoms at road shows and in nightclubs.
Marie Stopes sales and marketing manager Michael Sami said the promotion of the TRY TiME Ferdangle condoms was a carefully planned social marketing campaign.
He said a condom sold meant a condom used and the money was generated back into the HIV/AIDS programs.
Reaching out to the Poor, The Gates' Approach
In all the countries, SEAM provided technical assistance to local partners to design and administer collaborative strategies for improving access to essential health commodities, particularly in underserved rural areas, where access was difficult. The focus of SEAM is also to increase private sector participation in the supply and distribution of drugs. In Ghana, the SEAM programme is being implemented with the assistance of the Pharmacy Council as per regulatory functions and the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation (GSMF) International to establish a franchise of chain shops of licensed chemical sellers who run "CAREshops". SEAM also works with the Catholic Drug Sector for the establishment of a pooled procurements system as well as to start a rational use of medicines programme.
