4 ms·

>such as 'Five a Day' (a marketing campaign that most didn't realize was a marketing campaign that has long since been accepted as a piece of general health adv

>such as 'Five a Day' (a marketing campaign that most didn't realize was a marketing campaign that has long since been accepted as a piece of general health advice) Care to provide your source for this?

kristianc 9y ago
I worked with someone who had worked on the campaign for Public Health England but: “The 5 A DAY programme was launched in March 2003 as part of the health promotion activity by the Department of Health to encourage people to eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day.” http://archive.senseaboutscience.org/pages/5-a-day-qa.html http://archive.senseaboutscience.org/pages/5-a-day-qa.html
- Symbiote 9y ago
  Doesn't "marketing" suggest someone was trying to sell something? This was a public health awareness campaign, and given the huge number of TV (and other) adverts they had, I'm surprised if people didn't see it as such. I wouldn't call the road or railway safety campaigns 'marketing', but they're also well-run campaigns with lots of visibility and sometimes memorable phrases.
  - kristianc 9y ago
    This risks getting into semantics, but no. The AMA definition of marketing is: "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." [1] Having worked with the people who run such campaigns they would absolutely describe themselves as marketing practitioners, many move between public and private sector during the course of their career and the skillset and techniques for doing both are completely fungible. Worth remembering also that public health campaigns are paid for with public money. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing
  - bostik 9y ago
    > Doesn't "marketing" suggest someone was trying to sell something? Yes. An agenda. Personally, and I have held this opinion for more than 2 decades now, is that I don't see any practical difference between marketing campaigns and political propaganda. They are both trying to influence an audience for their own benefit, and are constantly trying to sell something. Services. Check. Products. Check. Ideas. Check. A way of life. Check. An agenda? Check. (EDIT: make quoted text appear in italics)
    - icebraining 9y ago
      What's the "own benefit" part in Five a Day, though?
      - kristianc 9y ago
        Public Health campaigns tend to operate on the premise that it's more cost-effective to "inform"/"educate"/"sell" the idea of preventative healthcare than have obese / drunk drivers / heart attack patients clogging up A&E departments. It might be sound logic, but it's still marketing.
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      So where does public safety fit in? For example, I wouldn't say this was political, they have nothing to sell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5pI5pmYE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5pI5pmYE4 (railway safety) The campaign that started the "5 a day" thing was called Change 4 Life, and seems closer to education and information than propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb0fLYdPEPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb0fLYdPEPM
      - kristianc 9y ago
        QED: Change4Life describes itself as a "social marketing campaign," and as I pointed out deploys all of the techniques of regular marketing campaigns vis-a-vis audience segmentation etc. Change4Life isn't aimed at the whole population, but so-called "high-risk families." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change4Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change4Life http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/supporter-resources/downloads/Change4Life_Marketing%20Strategy_April09.pdf http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/supporter-resources/downloads/...

kristianc 9y ago

I worked with someone who had worked on the campaign for Public Health England but: “The 5 A DAY programme was launched in March 2003 as part of the health promotion activity by the Department of Health to encourage people to eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day.” http://archive.senseaboutscience.org/pages/5-a-day-qa.html http://archive.senseaboutscience.org/pages/5-a-day-qa.html

Symbiote 9y ago
Doesn't "marketing" suggest someone was trying to sell something? This was a public health awareness campaign, and given the huge number of TV (and other) adverts they had, I'm surprised if people didn't see it as such. I wouldn't call the road or railway safety campaigns 'marketing', but they're also well-run campaigns with lots of visibility and sometimes memorable phrases.
- kristianc 9y ago
  This risks getting into semantics, but no. The AMA definition of marketing is: "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." [1] Having worked with the people who run such campaigns they would absolutely describe themselves as marketing practitioners, many move between public and private sector during the course of their career and the skillset and techniques for doing both are completely fungible. Worth remembering also that public health campaigns are paid for with public money. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing
- bostik 9y ago
  > Doesn't "marketing" suggest someone was trying to sell something? Yes. An agenda. Personally, and I have held this opinion for more than 2 decades now, is that I don't see any practical difference between marketing campaigns and political propaganda. They are both trying to influence an audience for their own benefit, and are constantly trying to sell something. Services. Check. Products. Check. Ideas. Check. A way of life. Check. An agenda? Check. (EDIT: make quoted text appear in italics)
  - icebraining 9y ago
    What's the "own benefit" part in Five a Day, though?
    - kristianc 9y ago
      Public Health campaigns tend to operate on the premise that it's more cost-effective to "inform"/"educate"/"sell" the idea of preventative healthcare than have obese / drunk drivers / heart attack patients clogging up A&E departments. It might be sound logic, but it's still marketing.
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    So where does public safety fit in? For example, I wouldn't say this was political, they have nothing to sell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5pI5pmYE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5pI5pmYE4 (railway safety) The campaign that started the "5 a day" thing was called Change 4 Life, and seems closer to education and information than propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb0fLYdPEPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb0fLYdPEPM
    - kristianc 9y ago
      QED: Change4Life describes itself as a "social marketing campaign," and as I pointed out deploys all of the techniques of regular marketing campaigns vis-a-vis audience segmentation etc. Change4Life isn't aimed at the whole population, but so-called "high-risk families." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change4Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change4Life http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/supporter-resources/downloads/Change4Life_Marketing%20Strategy_April09.pdf http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/supporter-resources/downloads/...