Public health policy and the behavioural turn: The case of social marketing

Abstract

Recent public health policy has emphasized the promotion of behavioural change and the achievement of healthy lifestyles as central to tackling deeply ingrained health inequalities in the UK and beyond. These approaches contrast with more upstream structural strategies that aim to address material determinants of health. A current exemplar of the behaviourist approach is the use of social marketing as a methodology in public health. Social marketing is posited as a strategy for creating ‘social good’ through importing the methods of commercial marketing into health and social policy in a range of settings, in this instance, public health. In contrast to the traditional public health goals of serving society and improving the wellbeing of populations, those of social marketing, as with other recent strategies in health and social policy, start with the management of behaviours and lifestyles, responsibility for which is placed with the individual. It is argued that this reflects a broader ‘behavioural turn’ in public health methodologies that increasingly obviate the significance of social and relational determinants of health. Qualitative data collected with a sample of public health professionals ( n = 17) are discussed to examine the adoption of these new methodologies in a specific locality in the UK. The wider implications of these practices for public health strategies both nationally and internationally are considered.