Harmful Marketing Action Circle

I recently published an op-ed on the harmful practices of Facebook and their similarity to harmful marketing practices in a number of other industries. I had already published a set of essays on harmful marketing practices in the tobacco industry, the food industry, the gun industry, the financial industry, the fossil fuel industry, and the pharmaceutical industry. I drew on those to make the case for the need for standards on regulating corporations so that harmful practices are not profitable practices. I attach a paper that proposes standards for regulation.

A colleague of mine from the National Institute on Drug Abuse wrote to me and said that she had never thought of marketing a social determinant of health. Since it is clear that much more attention is being given to social determinants and has been true in the past, it seems to me that it is important to ensure that these harmful practices get included in our efforts to reduce social determinants that account for significant inequities in health.

In addition, since the essays on harmful marketing were published in the online magazine, This View of Life, and there is to my knowledge no peer-reviewed paper making the case for viewing harmful marketing a social determinant of health, I think that there is a need for such a paper.

Virtually all of the facts needed to write this paper are contained in my essays and in the paper I attach. The only topic that is not included in what I have already written, is a discussion of the degree to which harmful marketing is particularly directed at disadvantaged populations. For example, there is empirical evidence that alcohol outlets-- bars and liquor stores-- are found in greater numbers and disadvantaged neighborhoods.

So I’m looking for about four people who would like to work on an Action Circle that would produce this paper. It would give you some experience in writing for a peer-reviewed journal and would likely result in a published paper. Moreover, if we wrote it as a guide to reducing harmful marketing, it could become a guide that is used by policymakers and local communities to address this problem.

If you are interested in participating, please RSVP to join this Action Circle.