Page 263 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

CHAPTER NINE

Public Support for Regulating

the Public

Josh Wiener and Marlys Mason

The leading causes of death in 2000 were tobacco (435,000 deaths; 18.1%
of total US deaths), poor diet and physical inactivity (400,000 deaths;
16.6%), and alcohol consumption (85,000 deaths; 3.5%). (Mokdad, Marks,
Stroup, & Gerberding, 2004, p. 1238)

Despite innumerable marketing campaigns that promote pro-social behav-
iors, poor lifestyle choices continue to plague consumer and societal well-
being. Social marketing campaigns attempt to persuade consumers to
engage in positive behaviors (e.g., exercise, wear seat belts, immunize chil-
dren, recycle) or to avoid personally self-destructive behaviors (e.g., binge
drinking, smoking, unprotected sex). Broadly, there are two ways to try to
influence a person to behave in a pro-social manner. The classic social
marketing campaign focuses on trying to change the behavior of one indi-
vidual at a time using downstream methods. An alternative to this ap-
proach focuses on changing the broader macroenvironmental conditions
that influence behavior, and often this is achieved through policy changes
(Andreasen, 2006). Mandates may be placed on how firms can market
their products or services. For example, restrictions may be sought on
what consumers can buy, when they can buy, where they can buy, who
can buy, and so on. Marketing scholars have recognized such attempts
to influence environmental conditions through policy as upstream mar-
keting (Andreasen, 2006; Goldberg, 1995; Goldberg & Gunasti, 2007),