title: Countermarketing Alcohol and Unhealthy Food: An Effective Strategy for Preventing Noncommunicable Diseases? Lessons from Tobacco.
abstract: Countermarketing campaigns use health communications to reduce the demand for unhealthy products by exposing motives and undermining marketing practices of producers. These campaigns can contribute to the prevention of noncommunicable diseases by denormalizing the marketing of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food. By portraying these activities as outside the boundaries of civilized corporate behavior, countermarketing can reduce the demand for unhealthy products and lead to changes in industry marketing practices. Countermarketing blends consumer protection, media advocacy, and health education with the demand for corporate accountability. Countermarketing campaigns have been demonstrated to be an effective component of comprehensive tobacco control. This review describes common elements of tobacco countermarketing such as describing adverse health consequences, appealing to negative emotions, highlighting industry manipulation of consumers, and engaging users in the design or implementation of campaigns. It then assesses the potential for using these elements to reduce consumption of alcohol and unhealthy foods.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, City University of New York, New York, NY 10027; email: Nick.Freudenberg@sph.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: P Christopher
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Palmedo
authors.affiliation: Berkeley Media Studies Group, Berkeley, California 94704.
authors.forename: Lori
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dorfman
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, City University of New York, New York, NY 10027; email: Nick.Freudenberg@sph.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garza
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, City University of New York, New York, NY 10027; email: Nick.Freudenberg@sph.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, City University of New York, New York, NY 10027; email: Nick.Freudenberg@sph.cuny.edu.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Freudenberg
mesh_terms: D000434:Alcoholic Beverages; D005502:Food; D019649:Food Industry; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D040541:Marketing / Q000379:methods*; D062789:Tobacco Products
keywords: alcohol; beverages; health communications; industry practices; tobacco control