Search

July 2011 marked the 40th anniversary of social marketing. However, while the previous Labour administration dedicated sustained resources and support to developing the field of social marketing, this was followed by a time of uncertainty during the Coalition Government's ascent to power. This paper explores the potential future position of social marketing within David Cameron's evolving public health landscape, outlining areas of synergy between social marketing's key features, and the coalition's emergent public health architecture. The paper concludes with an exploration of the development opportunities nascent within social marketing, suggesting that support for the new commissioners (GP and local authority), and an enhanced emphasis on evaluation of financial and social outcomes, will be required if the evidence base for strong practice is to continue to grow and evolve.

In April 2009, the National Social Marketing Centre launched its new case study resource, ShowCase: a collection of 40 best practice social marketing programmes, predominantly from the UK. The process of collecting and researching these case studies has provided a unique opportunity to look at the current state of 'evaluation' within the field of social marketing. This paper shares some of the observations made during the review, exploring common challenges faced when evaluating social marketing. It also provides recommendations for improving this process to guide future social marketing delivery.

This paper considers the public health impacts of the income-generating activities of organised crime. These range from the traditional vice activities of running prostitution and supplying narcotics, to the newer growth areas of human trafficking in its various forms, from international supply of young people and children as sex workers through deceit, coercion or purchase from family, through to smuggling of migrants, forced labour and the theft of human tissues for transplant, and the sale of fake medications, foodstuffs and beverages, cigarettes and other counterfeit manufactures. It looks at the effect of globalisation on integrating supply chains from poorly-regulated and impoverished source regions through to their distant markets, often via disparate groups of organised criminals who have linked across their traditional territories for mutual benefit and enhanced profit, with both traditional and newly-created linkages between production, distribution and retail functions of cooperating criminal networks from different cultures. It discusses the interactions between criminals and the structures of the state which enable illegal and socially undesirable activities to proceed on a massive scale through corruption and subversion of regulatory mechanisms. It argues that conventional approaches to tackling organised crime often have deleterious consequences for public health, and calls for an evidence-based approach with a focus on outcomes rather than ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the influence of corporate industries on health policy regulations in Great Britain. She provides examples from the tobacco and food industry to demonstrate the government's ineptitude in policy making. One of the reasons for this cited by the author is that regulatory agencies are often funded by the industry. Also, regulations are often projected by industries as expensive and unfeasible. Industries often resort to third-party advocacy to subvert regulation. INSET: OVERSEEING THE REVOLVING DOOR.