Public health and obesity prevention campaigns – a case study and critical discussion

ABSTRACT

Social marketing campaigns play a key role in responses to obesity. We examine a recent Australian obesity prevention campaign as a case study to explore public health values, and in particular consider the implications of the use of fear, risk, stigma, disgust, and personal responsibility in such campaigns. We examine the broader implications of such campaigns as forms of social control that promote certain images of body weight while problematising other body types. We consider the intended and unintended consequences of these campaigns. Responses to obesity are influenced by the political environment. The intended and unintended consequences and the political environment should be considered in the development of alternative models.

KEYWORDS:

• Social marketing
• social control
• public health
• obesity
• panopticon

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Danielle Couch is grateful to receive an Australian Postgraduate Award in support of her PhD studies, and also to have been a recipient of a 2015 Fordham/Santander Universities International Scholarship in Ethics Education.

Notes on contributors

Danielle Couch

Danielle Couch Danielle Couch is a PhD candidate with Centre for Ethics in Medicine and Society. Her PhD uses social and cultural perspectives to explore media portrayals of body weight. Danielle is also a sociologist in practice, involved in diverse public health projects and activities, including working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, addressing stigma for people living with severe and persistent mental illness, population health planning, digital health programmes, and consumer participation in health system reform.

Adam Fried

Adam Fried Adam Fried is the assistant director of the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education. He is a licensed psychologist and has a PhD in clinical psychology. Dr. Fried has published in area of research ethics, including informed consent and ethical issues related to the use of the internet in practice and research. Additionally, he has published in the area of college drinking and was a member of a team that evaluated treatments for adolescent substance abuse at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He is currently the ethics editor of the Clinical Psychologist.

Paul Komesaroff

Paul Komesaroff Professor Paul Komesaroff is a physician, medical researcher, and philosopher at Monash University in Melbourne and Director of the Centre for Ethics in Medicine and Society. He is involved in a variety of research projects related to ethics in medicine and society, and action projects to develop community-based change. He is an executive director of the international NGO Global Reconciliation and author of the bioethical novel ‘Riding a crocodile’ (2014).