Page 297 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

Social Marketing and the Law 273

environment, zoning regulations could be used to limit the growth of con-
venience food outlets, and laws could be enacted mandating healthier
school lunches, the inclusion of healthier snack and beverage choices, or
even the elimination of certain products in school vending machines
(Seiders & Petty, 2004). Similarly, people who wish to change a particular
behavior but are unable to do so may benefit from a legal mandate that
forces the change. Thus, it would appear that the law generally has greater
potential for actually achieving behavioral change for the public good than
other methods, but it comes with the political price of restricting people’s
freedom of choice.
Social marketing and the law are often used in partnership. When a
new law is passed, such as mandated seat belt use or a prohibition on tex-
ting when driving, there often is an accompanying social marketing cam-
paign to inform people of the new law and attempt to persuade them to
comply with it. Not only can social marketing enhance legal compliance,
but laws may enhance the effectiveness of social marketing. For example,
the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Pub. L.
111-31) was enacted because antismoking social marketing campaigns
were deemed not sufficiently effective. The new law mandated that to-
bacco companies publish large and graphic health warnings in cigarette
advertising and on product labels (50 percent of the front and back of ciga-
rette packages) to correct the information deficit about the health risks of
cigarette smoking and ultimately assist in persuading people to stop or
never start smoking (Calvert, Allen-Brunner, & Locke, 2010).
Another example of the complementarity between social marketing and
law is the ongoing initiative by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
against misleading advertising claims by companies promoting weight-
loss products. Not only does the FTC bring enforcement actions against
advertisers, but it also publishes educational materials to help consumers
recognize common false advertising claims for such products and, by im-
plication, what must be done to lose weight (FTC, 2004). The FTC peri-
odically develops similar materials for other social issues, such as underage
drinking.
Lastly, courts have accepted social marketing as a remedy to settle class
action lawsuits. For example, when Allstate was sued by a class of African
Americans and Hispanics for alleged racial discrimination in the sale of
insurance, the company agreed to increase its expenditures on marketing
directed at minorities to 15 percent of its national funding, to develop a
credit education program to be distributed through two community-based
organizations, and to pay those organizations $250,000 to implement the
program for their respective target audiences. After a challenge by some