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It was a pleasure and an honour to be asked to host the Academy of Marketing conference at Hull, particularly as 2017 was the 50th anniversary of the first conference. It was also the year the city...

The fact that social marketing and related fields such as health promotion have significant ethical dimensions (Eagle, Dahl, & Low, 2017; Rossi & Yudell, 2012; Tengland, 2016) may surprise many, given the aim to improve the lives of individuals, communities and society as a whole. At their broadest, ethical issues start with who has a mandate to determine what behaviour is deemed to be problematic, what action should be taken and whether interventions that may restrict individual freedoms are justified (Eagle & Dahl, 2015; Lefebvre, 2011; Polonsky, 2017). More specific issues arise in relation to targeting decisions, especially in regard to which sectors of a population should be the primary focus of activity and whether excluding some sectors is discriminatory (Eagle et al., 2013; Peattie, Peattie, & Newcombe, 2016), together with issued relating to equity (Langford & Panter-Brick, 2013) Also problematic is the issue of whether strategies may result in unintended outcomes such as anxiety or distress, stigmatising individuals or groups, creating, or unfairly blaming individuals whose desired actions may be hampered by wider social or environmental issues (Bombak, 2014; Byers & Gilmer, 2018; Carter, Mayes, Eagle, & Dahl, 2017; Cherrier & Gurrieri, 2014; Coleman & Hatley Major, 2014). In this chapter, we examine several of these issues in detail, analysing how they are impacted by decisions taken at a macro level and discussing potential strategies to minimise negative impacts.

We consider the role of codes of ethics in social marketing, distinguishing between “procedural ethics” and “ethics-in-practice” (after Guillemin & Gillam, 2004). We review foundations for “procedural ethics”—formal systems for ethical oversight—including moral and political philosophy, existing codes of ethics, and previous proposals for codes of ethics for social marketing. We then discuss “ethics-in-practice,” the ethical dimensions of the small moments that comprise everyday life. We connect this idea to Aristotle’s concept of phronesis, the practical wisdom to respond in just the right way to particular situations. Supporting the ethical practice of social marketing will require both procedural ethics and ethics-in-practice, iteratively related to one another. We conclude with three tasks for the profession: (1) develop and apply norms, standards, and sanctions; (2) develop formal, procedural ethics, in a just way (e.g., codes of ethics); and (3) support social marketers to develop ethics-in-...

Purpose Patient empowerment (PE) is a key public health policy tool globally which is seen as unproblematic, but contains a number of unwarranted assumptions and unrecognised challenges to achieving effective implementation. Further, the theoretical foundations for understanding the impact of persuasive health communications on PE are weak. The purpose of this paper is to review these factors and to highlight major areas of concern. Design/methodology/approach First, the assumptions underpinning empowerment and the implicit theoretical foundations for active health information seeking behaviours are reviewed. This is then followed by a readability analysis of internet-based material relating to two general medical conditions, four chronic medical conditions and six patient information leaflets which was conducted to explore issues relation to the provision and readability of online health information. Findings The assumptions underpinning expectations of policy makers and health organisations regarding active health information seeking are shown to be problematic, with several potential impediments to effective PE implementation, including the fact that almost all of the online material reviewed is written in language too complex for the majority of the general public to comprehend, let alone act on. Practical implications Recommendations are made for guiding information seeking and a research agenda is outlined that would aid in strengthening theoretical underpinnings, expand knowledge and thereby help inform practice and policy debate regarding how PE can be improved. Originality/value This paper contributes to understanding of the challenges of effective health communication in the digital age by highlighting the need for a greater understanding of online health information seeking and the impact of limited health literacy and numeracy.

We provide an overview of the development of product placements within traditional and newer electronic media, followed by a critique of current regulations where they exist and highlight the challenges this form of brand promotion presents to regulators. We note the weaknesses in current theoretical perspectives on the way product placements impact more than awareness and argue that a failure to recognise the increasingly diverse nature of product placement within entertainment media content means that awareness campaigns and warnings regarding the presence of product placements are unlikely to be effective in countering any negative effects of the practice on vulnerable groups such as children and young adults. While we focus on the impact of product placement activity on children and young adults, using primarily the examples of alcohol and tobacco products, we also raise concerns regarding a failure to act on the presence of a number of harmful products that fall beyond the current list of restricted products even in countries where some form of specific regulation exists. In order to aid those considering the necessity for, or scope of, any future restrictions on this form of marketing communication, it is important to determine not only what is known, but what also needs to be determined about the impact of product placements across the range of existing and evolving communication channels.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the view of integrated marketing communications (IMC) by social marketing practitioners. Specifically, the paper furthers the discussion how a symbiotic relationship between IMC and social marketing can lead to both practical improvements of health-related social marketing campaigns, as well as theoretical advancement of the IMC construct.Design/methodology/approach– Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with practitioners, the authors provide exploratory evidence for support for IMC within the social marketing community and highlight potential differences and similarities when transferring IMC from a commercial to a social context.Findings– Three main differences emerged when transferring IMC from a commercial to a social context. These include differences of customer-centric approaches between commercial and social marketing, the need to weigh out the application of IMC to the charity brand or the use of IMC at a behavioural level and, finally, different complexity levels of desired behaviour as a mediating factor.Research limitations/implications– As with all qualitative data, the findings may not be generalisable beyond the interview participants and organisations studied.Practical implications– Many practitioners expressed that they liked IMC as a concept, but they lacked guidance as to the application with a social marketing context. This paper contributes to providing this guidance and establishing a body of knowledge how IMC can be applied in a non-commercial setting.Originality/value– The paper contributes to the practical development of guidance how the largely commercially applied IMC construct can be modified to be used in a social marketing context, while correspondingly highlighting how IMC needs to evolve to grow beyond purely commercial application.

Social marketing is increasingly being used by public and nonprofit organizations to deliver behavior change objectives. Drawing on the example of physical activity for the over 65s, we show how social marketing techniques can deliver a physical activity program for a priority group that has so far received little attention. In this study, conducted in the United Kingdom, we use a grounded theory approach to understand motivational factors and perceived barriers and to determine the types of messages and message channels that could be used for a potential social marketing–based intervention. We show how the findings of this pilot study can be used to develop such an intervention, and present a modeled intervention, based on the transtheoretical model of behavior change.

Many social marketers assume that because they are focusing on positive behaviour change they may expect fewer ethical issues arising from their work than conventional, commercial marketing. However, such a view is sadly too simplistic. This chapter focuses on the ethical issues facing social marketing. It argues that social marketers face an even greater potential for ethical issues and gives examples of these by focusing on targeting, stigmatization, victim blaming, coercion, and the use of financial incentives, among others. Recognizing the manifold potential for ethical challenges, and the lack of a decisive manner in which to resolve them easily, it then discusses ethical frameworks which can aid social marketers in formulating a response to potential issues and arriving at a considered decision. The chapter concludes by discussing the potential role of a professional code of ethics, and how this can aid future ethical decision-making.

[Extract] This special issue of the International Journal of Advertising presents a selection from one of the world's most dynamic, yet mostly under-researched marketing markets: Latin America. Despite rapid growth and change, only a few studies in marketing have examined this region or drawn upon data derived from Latin American countries, with even fewer studies published which focus specifically on marketing communications (Fastoso and Whitelock 2011). With this special issue, I hope to address the scarcity of region-specific research and present seven papers shedding light on marketing communication in this fast-growing region of the world.

There is widespread concern that consumers are making inappropriate decisions about what they eat, leading to a growing incidence of obesity and chronic illness, which will strain public-health budgets and damage economic competitiveness. Inappropriate nutritional decisions and obesity are of particular public-policy importance where young consumers are concerned. The paper investigates how consumers, particularly young consumers, can be persuaded to make better nutritional decisions voluntarily, and how government and commercial persuasive communications can be deployed to facilitate such decisions. The key conclusions are that the mass media are not a reliable vehicle for bringing about the desired behavioural changes, but that new media, such as the Internet and ‘text messaging’, should be used to deliver tailored messages to individuals, particularly younger consumers.

Social marketing has advanced rapidly from its beginnings almost 40 years ago. This commentary takes a look at the current themes in published social marketing research by using text-mining to analyze articles published in the past 5 years. It also discusses the areas for future research, especially the need for published social marketing research to expand from mostly health-related application to other areas.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the nature of advergames and the rhetoric versus reality of their claimed effects and effectiveness, focusing specifically on their use by children.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of major web sites that are likely to have particular appeal to children and an evaluation in order to determine whether the material contained in these sites would be permitted if similar codes of practice, as for other media, would be applied to internet sites.FindingsThe paper finds that the majority of web sites do not comply with the existing broadcasting codes of practice for mainstream advertising.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is exploratory in nature and the sample size limited.Practical implicationsAs the paper suggests that advertisers should critically examine the content of their web sites and open the debate about what constitutes acceptable online behavior.Originality/valueThe paper offers insights about the content of advergames in practice and the potential problems associated with regulation of advertising in different media forms, especially new and evolving media forms.

Recently there has been an increasing interest in plagiarism detection systems, such as the web-based Turnitin system. However, no study has so far tried to look at how students react towards those systems being used. This exploratory study examines the attitudes of students on a postgraduate module after using Turnitin as their standard way of submitting work and getting feedback. Overall, students reacted positively towards the system. However, the study also found evidence of a group of students who were less positive, which seemed to be a result of their insecurity about how to quote correctly.

This paper focuses on the use of mobile “app”-based interventions as tools to influence health-related behaviour. Apps are software applications designed to run on smart phones and other mobile devices We review the extensive but fragmented literature relating to serious games and gamification in order to identify the key concepts and frameworks that can be used to underpin the design and evaluation of these apps. We then use these criteria to review a range of current apps developed by one public body, the UK NHS and commercial developers of health-related apps and compare these to commercial apps promoting unhealthy food items. We suggest that there are serious weaknesses evident in the apps provided by public bodies and that this sector could learn from an analysis of the development strategies used in the commercial sector. Directions for future research conclude the paper.

People with chronic illnesses are likely to show a higher involvement in decision making about their treatment options than people with acute illnesses. Of particular interest to many people with chronic illnesses is the internet as a medium where they can gather, share and exchange information and support each other. Little is known about the kind of information shared and topics discussed online. Using the example of people living with HIV/Aids, this paper examines the kind of information shared and discusses the relevance of understanding the online information exchange for the medical community.

In 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) identified overweight and obesity as a leading health indicator and called for a reduction in the proportion of children and adolescents who are overweight or obese to 15% by 2010 (DHHS 2001). Unfortunately, little progress has been made towards this goal and the 2007 – 08 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicate that approximately 32% of children and adolescents, ages 2 – 19, are overweight or obese.1