SOCIAL MARKETING IN THE NEWS
Bilingualism Needs a Revamp, Fed Says
The federal language commissioner thinks Ontarians need an attitudinal adjustment when it comes to the French language.
And one expert says it's time to stop selling bilingualism to anglophones as a faintly guilt-washed patriotic duty and rebrand it as a gateway to the global marketplace.
Thirty-five years after Canada became officially bilingual, the Commissioner of Official Languages is offering a contract worth up to $100,000 for a "social marketing strategy" in Ontario.
The tender, posted on the government's Internet clearing house a week ago and open until the end of today, seeks bids "to promote the value and brand image of the French language to a non-French speaking audience."
Caribbean Called to Ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
The Inter-American Heart Foundation (IAHF) wants Caribbean countries to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by the time Cricket World Cup starts.
President, Professor Trevor Hassell has further challenged medical care personnel to lobby their governments to establish a long-term health legacy for Caribbean people by designating and promoting the event as Health Living World Cup.
“The kinds of things I would propose would be for example, advertisements on television, distribution of educational literature to those persons who come to the Caribbean to view the cricket,” Professor Hassell said. “We could also have specific healthy living and heart healthy events for persons who come to Cricket World Cup so that instead of spending most of their time partying, they’re some persons who might want to improve their health in this particularly healthy part of the world.”
The IAHF president was speaking at the opening of the fourth annual Caribbean Conference on Emergency Cardiac Care at the Grand Barbados Beach Hotel.
At that event, Barbados’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joy St. John, speaking on behalf of Health Minister, Dr. Jerome Walcott said it’s time to stop pouring money primarily into curative medicine.
“Health programmes have to embrace health promotion and make our citizens aware of the value of good health and the importance of remaining healthy,” she said. “They have to be taught the skill of making good lifestyle choices, be it diet or exercise related. Our social marketing is traditionally centred on illness and how to treat illness. We have to become as creative as the tobacco and fast food industries in selling a product, but our product will be the concept of Sustainable Wellness.”
HIV/Aids Awareness Campaigns Hailed
In spite of the fact that Zimbabwe did not receive assistance from the United Nations Global Aids Fund, for several years in a politically motivated move that detracted from HIV/Aids programmes, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare announced the decrease in the HIV/Aids prevalence rate from 24,6 percent as of 2003 to 21,3 percent this year.
In those early years, much attention was given to the fact that the virus was spread faster by gay men who shared needles.
"This somehow worked but it gave a false impression to people, that if they were not in this high risk group, they were somehow not at risk at all."
The core of the early campaigns was the use of fear to change behaviour and now there is a shift towards de-stigmatisation and acceptance that uninfected people can co-exist with the infected.
"Scare tactics were seen as a cynical method for effecting change and because they often produced their own set of negative results, fear was deemed inappropriate as a credible prevention technique," said a social marketing expert.
"Now, campaigns instead, use positive messages that promote individual awareness and self-determination and that avoid imposing a judgmental or moralistic view on any particular behaviour."
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