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The debate surrounding tobacco control has become increasingly polarised as the health and tobacco lobbies seek to influence tobacco policy. In recent times the main focus for debate has been the impact of tobacco advertising on under‐age smoking. However, with the proposed ban on tobacco advertising, this paper argues that branding may prove pivotal to re‐orienting thinking about how tobacco marketing continues to influence smoking initiation. Marketing theory asserts that creating demand for a product is dependent upon building a strong brand identity that concurs with the needs, values and lifestyles of the consumer. It is hypothesised that branding can function by affecting not only the way people perceive specific tobacco products but also their perceptions of smoking behaviour itself. Using branding to extend the debate in this way provides some useful insights into the role tobacco marketing might play in encouraging young people to start smoking. It is concluded that explanations for smoking initiation can be found, not by attempting to isolate the abilities of tobacco marketing and health policy to persuade young people to adopt one behaviour in favour of the other, but by examining how exposure to competing forces such as these during adolescence may conspire to brand smoking in a way that encourages young people to experiment with cigarettes. It is suggested that more significant advances in reducing smoking rates are likely to depend upon a willingness to confront the fundamental contradictions that are created by such competing forces.

The purpose of this paper is to review the effectiveness of social marketing interventions in influencing individual behaviour and bringing about environmental and policy‐level changes in relation to alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs and physical activity. Social marketing is the use of marketing concepts in programmes designed to influence the voluntary behaviour of target audiences in order to improve health and society.

The paper is a review of systematic reviews and primary studies using pre‐specified search and inclusion criteria. Social marketing interventions were defined as those which adopted specified social marketing principles in their development and implementation.

The paper finds that a total of 54 interventions met the inclusion criteria. There was evidence that interventions adopting social marketing principles could be effective across a range of behaviours, with a range of target groups, in different settings, and can influence policy and professional practice as well as individuals.

As this was a systematic paper, the quality of included studies was reasonable and many were RCTs. However, many of the multi‐component studies reported overall results only and research designs did not allow for the efficacy of different components to be compared. When reviewing social marketing effectiveness it is important not to rely solely on the “label” as social marketing is often misrepresented; there is a need for social marketers to clearly define their approach.

The paper shows that social marketing can form an effective framework for behaviour change interventions and can provide a useful “toolkit” for organisations that are trying to change health behaviours.

The research described in this paper represents one of the few systematic examinations of social marketing effectiveness and is based on a clear definition of “social marketing”. It highlights both social marketing's potential to achieve change in different behavioural contexts and its ability to work at individual, environmental and wider policy levels.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the scope of social marketing by re-examining some of its core concepts: the balance between the “wants” of individuals with the “needs” of society; the nature of exchange; the inclusion of techniques not explicitly considered part of the panoply of marketing; techniques available to social marketing, such as “nudge” style techniques, regulation or behavioural conditioning; the view that behaviour change must be its definitive goal; the ethical and political dimensions of social marketing; and the definition of social marketing.

The authors pose seven questions based on these concepts which they debate.

The authors conclude that a more inclusive view of what constitutes social marketing is required: one that avoids absolutism or defining the field in terms of the tactics it employs. The paper calls for a set of ethical codes which would enable social marketers to better defend approaches that deploy more implicit and strongly persuasive techniques common in the commercial world but unacknowledged in social marketing.

The paper questions some of the settled views of the field, such as the focus on “behaviour change” and the notion of “exchange” and “voluntary” behaviour change. The paper debates the ethical implications of using “invisible” or coercive techniques, and the nature of customer-centricity. The paper also debates the politics of social marketing and encourages debate about interventions which go beyond rational exchange.

Value co-creation thinking is reshaping the understanding of markets and marketing and presents a significant opportunity to develop the theory and practice of social marketing. However, whilst value co-creation offers thought-provoking new directions for the field, applying this theory and its core concepts in social marketing is not without significant challenges. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This is a conceptual paper that seeks to integrate lessons from social marketing practice with the value co-creation discourse from commercial marketing. Drawing upon two projects that have applied principles of collaboration and co-design, the paper provides a critical perspective on the adoption of value co-creation in social marketing.

The collaborative and emancipatory ambitions of co-creation seem highly compatible with social marketing. However, the paper notes some significant conceptual, ethical and practical obstacles in the path of a workable theory of value co-creation for social marketing.

While representation of value co-creation and other collaborative approaches is increasing in the social marketing literature, this is the first attempt to provide an integrated and critical review of their compatibility with social marketing at a conceptual, ethical and theoretical level. The analysis shows that value co-creation theory can simultaneously offer opportunities and present obstacles for social marketing.

This article aims to explore the apparent paradox between the nutritional knowledge of parents of pre‐school children and their actual food purchase and preparation behaviour.

Two separate qualitative data collection exercises were conducted, an exploratory focus group study in the UK and a projective technique study in Australia.

The UK study found that, despite believing that vegetables were good for children's health, mothers also perceived that it was extremely difficult to encourage children to eat them. The results of Australian study suggest that the purchase of unhealthy “treats” or “bribes” is explained through the concept of “expediency” whereas what this study labels as “good parenting” emerged as the main motivational force leading to the purchase of healthy food.

The authors caution on any inappropriate generalisations being based on the findings of this study. Further qualitative and quantitative empirical research is suggested in settings different to those of this study.

The authors suggest that information‐ and education‐based campaigns, which simply emphasise the benefits of “healthy” food and the disbenefits of “unhealthy” food for children will have limited impact on childhood obesity. Instead, future interventions need to acknowledge the complex reality of parenting and the barriers and competition to healthy food choices, and to offer parents meaningful help in food purchasing and preparation. An approach suggested by the authors that acknowledges this complexity is that of social marketing.

This paper provides new insights into the food purchase and preparation behaviour of parents and suggests alternative strategies for addressing the current childhood obesity epidemic.

One of the many barriers to a healthier diet in low‐income communities is a presumed lack of practical food skills. This article reports findings from exploratory qualitative research conducted with potential participants in a cooking skills intervention, in low income communities in Scotland. The research found widely varying levels of skill and confidence regarding cooking, supported the need for a community‐based intervention approach, and demonstrated the importance of consumer research to inform the content of interventions. Challenges the view that low income communities lack skills, suggesting that food skills should be defined more broadly than “cooking from scratch”. Other barriers to healthy eating, such as poverty, food access and taste preferences, remain important.

This paper aims to reinforce the arguments for applying the social support concept in social marketing.

This paper aims to conceptually outline the potential positive contribution of social support for social marketing practice as a tool to induce behavior change.

This paper focuses on the philosophical principle of social exchange, highlights the consumer-centered perspective of social marketing, which implies the natural evaluation of the social networks of influence and support and presents social support as a mechanism to induce long-term behavior change.

No empirical (qualitative or quantitative) investigations were used to test the application of the concept in practical interventions.

This paper provides significant insights for intervention developers that can be used to program and theoretically justify future social marketing interventions applying the social support concept.

Empirical research concluded for a positive relation between social support and human health and well-being. Thus, increasing the use of the concept in social marketing can serve to attain these social goals.

The concept of social support has gained considerable interest in the areas of behavioral medicine and health psychology. Despite such interest, it is still not clear how it can be approached in social marketing as there is a lack of conceptual literature discussing social support from a social marketing perspective, the number of social marketing interventions operationalizing the concept is limited and, till date, no research has focused in comprehensively establishing a theoretical rationale to operationalize the concept in social marketing.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the routine, everyday experiences and attitudes people bring to cooking and eating and aims to compare the significance of such culinary cultures to diets in France and Britain.

The initial phase of this qualitative, comparative research involved in-depth interviews with 13 French and 14 British citizens who were each asked to reflect upon foods eaten in the home, preparation methods and issues surrounding dietary practices and culinary cultures. The next phase of the research asked “experts” working within the field to reflect and elaborate upon the initial findings and in total ten French and nine British “experts” were interviewed.

The results reveal how to a greater extent French respondents relied upon raw ingredients from which they more regularly prepared “traditional”, structured and commensal meal occasions. Such a food model remains a significant part of everyday life and culinary cultures in France support the consumption of a relatively healthy diet unlike in Britain.

This is a small exploratory study based on a limited number of respondents. Further research would benefit from observing what people actually do rather than relying on what people say they do.

Those responsible for promoting healthier diets need to further prioritise the significance of culinary cultures to cooking practices and diet.

While the influence of domestic cooking practices on food intake has received some scholarly attention, this paper presents a more holistic insight into how culinary cultures can play a significant mediating role on diets more generally.