Social Marketing in the News
Editorial | Two Rival Plans, One Stated Goal
Violence in Philadelphia hasn't stopped ripping at young people in 2005. Thirteen-year-old Jacob Gray recuperates at home from the pummeling he received two weeks ago. The healing is left for the survivors of two other teens, Kareem Sephes and Daniel Starling, who were shot dead last Monday.
Children don't need any more demonstrations on their behalf. They need programs and cooperation among all branches of government that can help keep them safe.
Two recently announced efforts, one by Mayor Street and one by State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), could do just that - if they don't get undercut by political rivalries.
Evans last week rolled out the "Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia" …[t]he impressive proposal features in-depth data collection on young gunshot victims getting treated at emergency rooms, and a social marketing [requires free registration] campaign to get adults more active in protecting children.
Social Marketing of a Sort
During the past decade Vancouverites have lived with open drug dealing on their streets, deaths from drug overdoses, and disease spread from dirty syringes. All types of crime associated with drug dealing have been on the rise. In the past we have seen social marketing campaigns based on the premise of “Just say NO to drugs”… As most of us in the health care field have experienced, this message carries little credence.
Five years ago the Vancouver city council adopted a “four pillars” strategy which included harm reduction, prevention, treatment, and enforcement… Since then two programs unique to North America have been started: a safe injection site [SIS] for heroin addicts where nurses are instructing intravenous drug users on the proper usage of IV needles and a clinic prescribing free heroin to hard core addicts.
We can look at SISs in this [4 Ps] framework. The product – heroin, probably a cleaner more consistent product than what is found on the streets. This is probably the main difference from the traditional social marketing product which has been a behavior. Price – you can’t beat the price, free. This may help decrease the crime related to drug use. Place – a clinic where clean needles are provided and nurses that teach you how to use them properly. Promotion – my guess is from word of mouth. Although this version of social marketing may not be what Philip Kotler had in mind, it may work better than the previous efforts when it comes to treating public health problems associated with intravenous drug use.
Could U2 Leader Bono Brand the USA?
A true citizen of the world, Bono is also a very fine social marketer… Bono talks to the consumer. He does not talk about the product or service. He communicates to his targeted audience during shows, through his music and lyrics, through the media and to many political and religious leaders of the world. To name a few: President Bush, Bill Gates, evangelical Christian groups, etc. He is able to touch people and achieve his goal of positive social change.
Today, Bono realizes that he also needs to address the corporate world. He said: “We need the marketing firepower. We have the churches, the students, the rock stars, the movie stars, the cowboys. What we need now is corporate America.” When he speaks to corporate America, he talks about countries being branded. Brand USA is in a bit of trouble. It affects the business world and leaders know it; so why not contribute to a better USA brand?
Invasive Marketing Of Food Must Be Regulated
“We won’t get children to change their behaviour when it comes to junk food unless we regulate the invasive marketing methods used by food manufacturers”, says Professor of Marketing Janet Hoek of Massey University. Professor Hoek was speaking at a seminar preceding the Annual General Meeting of FOE (Fight the Obesity Epidemic Inc) held in Wellington [New Zealand] on Saturday.
“The growing use of the web as a medium that reaches children increases the salience of fast food brands. These become so well integrated into our environment and so familiar that it is increasingly difficult for healthy eating messages to prevail,” said Professor Hoek.
Hoek concluded that behavioural change through social marketing and education will not work without a regulatory framework. “Social marketing will reinforce healthy eating patterns where these exist. However, it has very little chance of improving poor eating behaviours in a media environment that contains frequent promotions for high fat, salt and sugar items.”
Governor’s Landmark HIV/AIDS Awareness Initiative Endorsed by National Teen Health Organization
The Healthy Teen Network today endorsed [Illinois] Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich’s landmark BASUAH (Brothers And Sisters United Against HIV/AIDS) project, a social marketing effort designed to reach the African-American community with education, prevention and testing.
Numerous media outlets statewide have agreed to partner with the State of Illinois to boost this effort geared toward the African-American community. The state will increase funding efforts ten-fold to $2.5 million, build media partnerships and form key partnerships with churches, colleges and South Africa to address this public health crisis.
The campaign targeting African Americans, includes public service announcements to air on radio stations throughout the state and print PSAs will appear in newspapers statewide. Posters, transit ads, printed materials, and events will feature the campaign’s slogan, website and Illinois’ HIV/AIDS hotline for testing sites and prevention information.
Additional components included in The BASUAH Project include the following:
- Partnering with predominately African-American colleges and universities to provide on-campus rapid HIV/AIDS testing and to establish peer networks to encourage testing
- Partnering with African-American churches and their youth ministries to establish peer networks and encourage testing
- Filing emergency rules to implement statewide rapid HIV/AIDS testing
- Developing perinatal HIV rapid testing, and reporting past results
- Establish the first-ever African-American faith-based statewide conference to address eliminating the spread of HIV/AIDS in the African American community
- Wellness on Wheels Van
- Launching the South African Twinning Partnership
Other news and commentary is available at On Social Marketing and Social Change.
1:49:53 PM 
|
