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Public Support for Regulating the Public 255

unwillingness of medical, public health, and voluntary health organiza-
tions to fully participate in the required coalitions. In another case, a well-
coordinated, community-wide coalition was found to be an important
characteristic of communities that successfully instituted a wide array of
policies that successfully reduced alcohol-induced deaths and injuries
(Holder et al., 1997). Wallack, Dorfman, Jernigan, and Themba-Nixon
(1993) argued that the legitimacy of media advocacy comes from commu-
nity support, which in turn comes from having an encompassing and ef-
fective local coalition. Both Andreasen (2006) and Siegel and Lotenberg
(2007) provided valuable insights about the importance of coalitions as
well as strategic and tactical advice about how to construct and maintain
effective coalitions.
One of social marketing’s most important revelations regarding coali-
tion formation is that potential members will initially be attracted on the
basis of “self-interest,” where self-interest often corresponds to their per-
ception of how solving the problem or implementing the proposed policy
will advance their core agenda. Through strategic relationship building,
policy advocates can identify organizations with overlapping interests and
explicitly draw links between their primary agenda (e.g., childhood obes-
ity) and outcomes that are the primary agenda items of other organizations
(e.g., the educational attainment of children, improving the diets of poor
people). Over time, as a campaign builds, normative pressures and the
potential “log-rolling” (I support your effort if you support mine) can be
effectively used. Organizations can also foster long-term relationships and
share resources to persevere through counterattack campaigns.

Communication with Elected Officials/Policymakers

There are two distinct issues that must be considered when discussing
the various forms of communication. The first is that the attention of the
receiver (e.g., media, member of the public, legislator) must be gained.
The second is that once the receiver’s attention is attracted, that party’s
understanding of the issue must be influenced in a pro-policy manner.
Communicating directly with public officials (Figure 9.1, Link “a”) is
essentially a “push” campaign. The importance of having a legislative
champion is emphasized by Jacobson and colleagues (1993), who re-
ported that the major reason why Minnesota passed one of the very first
clean air acts was the passion of a single effective legislator. Public officials
can be reached by paid lobbyists, concerned citizens, concerned experts
(e.g., medical doctors), association representatives, other elected officials,
targeted media messages, stories in the mass media, targeted special events