Public Information Campaigns Research Articles

Environmental attitudes and household consumption: an ambiguous relationship

This article analyses the relationship between environmental attitudes and energy use in the home and for transport by Norwegian households. Quantitative surveys were used to find statistical correlations, and qualitative analyses to reveal mechanisms that influence the ability to behave in an environmentally friendly way. Three theses about attitudes, mechanisms and household consumption are presented. Firstly, a desire to project an environmentally friendly image has little influence on energy use in the home and for transport. Secondly, a sense of powerlessness prevents people from translating positive environmental attitudes into low energy use in the home and for everyday transport. Thirdly, a desire to self-indulge prevents people from translating positive environmental attitudes into low energy use for long distance leisure travel. These results have important implications for environmental policy. Public information and awareness campaigns can give consumers information on how to behave in an environmentally responsible way, but tend only to influence categories of consumption with little environmental impact. Structural change can be used to mitigate the effect of the sense of powerlessness and encourage environmentally friendly behaviour, but the desire to self-indulge is much more difficult to deal with.

Implementation of Mental Health Parity: Lessons From California

Implementation of Mental Health Parity: Lessons From California

Service-learning in communication education

This article offers a case study of a graduate class in communication research methods with a service-learning approach. Students were engaged in evaluating the public information campaign of a nonprofit organization exposing human rights abuses in US prisons. They gained hands-on experience in the use of a variety of basic research methods and offered their client insight into its current and potential audiences. With a community partner to serve, the students understood the importance of systematic research inquiry and its value to nonprofit organizations. The project demonstrates the value of service-learning in communication education and describes how best practices can be applied for the development of similar courses in the discipline.

Directions in health communication

Recent papers in the Bulletin show that communication is a complex social process, somewhat uncontrollable and dynamic, but one that contributes to health outcomes and fosters good governance in even the most difficult situations.1–3 The principles of evidence-based care can be used to inform efficient health communication on two counts. First, communication should have explicit aims. For example, polio eradication has shown that it is important to distinguish between different ways of accomplishing the same target. Do we want to increase general demand for vaccination, in which case we might select a public information campaign to let people know why vaccination is important?4 Or do we want to specifically make up for missed vaccinations? This could be done by reminding parents or by vaccinating children during clinic visits made for other reasons.5 Both strategies seek to increase vaccination rates, but tackle different problems, require different approaches and have different short-term goals. To meet explicit aims, interventions need to be planned and developed in a way that permits them to be sequenced, modified or adapted for different populations or situations. Communication interventions that have structured form and content are easier to describe and classify, which in turn aids evaluation and adaptation.6 While some situations – such as risk communication – call for adherence to a fairly rigid script, most cases require variations on the original protocol. Second, evidence-based care encourages us to be systematic and transparent in reporting processes and outcomes. This makes it easier to see gaps. A major gap in how we conceive communication strategies is the ‘directional gap’. Communication is often conceived as communication to members of the public, to patients, to health consumers, to informal caregivers. Communication comes from health professionals, governments, researchers, health companies, etc. However, understanding the agency, ideas, constraints and burdens that affect the recipients of health communication is critical to improving that communication between and among professionals, researchers, government and the public.7,8 Published research is one way to measure communication priorities and concerns. The Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group has analysed its trials register to assess and code the number of interventions in trials in six broad communication directions.9 The analysis was done using 6728 trials, with the caveat that complex interventions may be coded for more than one direction.10 Of these trials, over two-thirds studied interventions of communications to the consumer (such as instructions on taking medicines). Most of the remainder were trials that studied communications between health providers and consumers (such as decision aids). Relatively few trials studied communication from the consumer (such as patient reporting of self-monitoring), between consumers (such as self-help groups), or to the health-care provider from another source (such as communication training). Nevertheless, the existence of these trials in multidirectional communication provides and opportunity for evidence synthesis. Such a synthesis could establish whether public health strategies that enable consumers to communicate with each other are more effective than those that do not. A recent example is the United Kingdom’s online national pandemic flu service that helps people assess their symptoms and request antivirals.11 A visit to a general practitioner is not necessary and the affected individual is advised to select a ‘flu friend’ to pick up the medicine from a collection point. The difficulty of retaining one-way communications can be seen in the simultaneous responsibility that is heaped on the public; to keep up to date with screening, act to maintain health, know about medicines, recognize the latest risks, manage the family’s health, budget for health care and plan for end-of-life. There is so much to do that merely telling people what to do is not enough. Health communication strategies need to evolve accordingly. ■

VARIATION ON A THEME

Israel's assault on Gaza in early 2009, Operation Cast Lead, achieved significant tactical successes and managed to redeem the Israel Defence Forces’ poor performance during the 2006 Lebanon War. Sergio Catignani examines Israel's military and public information campaign and why Cast Lead failed to accomplish the government's two main goals of stopping rocket attacks on Israel and the influx of weapons for resupplying Hamas.

European Antibiotic Awareness Day, 2008 – the first Europe-wide public information campaign on prudent antibiotic use: methods and survey of activities in participating countries

Antibiotic resistance is a major European and global public health problem and is, for a large part, driven by misuse of antibiotics. Hence, reducing unnecessary antibiotic use, particularly for the treatment of certain respiratory tract infections where they are not needed, is a public health priority. The success of national awareness campaigns to educate the public and primary care prescribers about appropriate antibiotic use in Belgium and France stimulated a European initiative coordinated by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and named European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD), to take place each year on 18 November. Specific campaign materials, including key messages, logos, slogans and a media toolkit, were developed and made available for use in European countries. The focus of the first EAAD campaign was about not taking antibiotics for viral infections such as colds and flu. A post-campaign survey was conducted in January 2009. Thirty-two European countries participated in the first EAAD, producing information materials and implementing activities to mark EAAD. Media coverage peaked on 18 and 19 November. At EU level, EAAD was launched at a scientific meeting in the European Parliament, Strasbourg. The event received EU political engagement through support from the EU Commissioner for Health, the Slovenian and French EU Presidencies, and Members of the European Parliament. Critical factors that led to the success of the first EAAD were good cooperation and process for building the campaign, strong political and stakeholder support and development of campaign materials based on scientific evidence. Countries indicated wide support for another EAAD in 2009. For this purpose, ECDC is developing several TV spots as well as a second set of EAAD campaign materials targeting primary care prescribers.

Impact of a public sensitization campaign on migraine management in France.

Migraine is a common and frequently disabling condition. Nevertheless, many migraine sufferers do not consult for migraine, are not medically followed up and self-treat the attacks. “Tour de France of migraine” consisted of free-access conferences held in six large towns in France following a wide public information campaign. This sensitization campaign aimed at providing participants with educational information on migraine disease and on current therapies. Headache sufferers were then invited to respond to two consecutive questionnaires delivered at the end of the conferences and 3 months later to assess the influence of the information delivered on their migraine management. Tour de France of migraine recruited mainly severe migraine sufferers, most of whom had already consulted and were medically followed up. However, migraine management was often suboptimal in these subjects since most of them found their acute treatment of attacks ineffective and only few of them received a prophylactic treatment. Three months after the conferences, more than half of respondents had consulted for headaches. There was a significant improvement in migraine-related disability, as reflected by a significant decrease in mean Headache Impact Test 6-item score, which might have been related to the higher proportion of subjects receiving a prophylactic treatment of migraine. The Tour de France of migraine campaign revealed the difficulty in sensitizing migraine sufferers towards the necessity of being medically followed up. Mainly patients with severe migraine attended the conferences and derived clinical benefit from the educational program. Other strategies should be developed to reach a wider population of migraine sufferers.

Le sel dans l’alimentation : un problème de santé publique

Salt abuse in nutrition may exert harmful effects on health, increasing arterial hypertension and its cardiovascular consequences. It is a risk factor, particularly for older subjects and those having chronic diseases such as arterial hypertension, some renal diseases, and obesity. In subjects more particularly vulnerable, the maintenance of sodium balance, which is mainly aldosterone dependent, is perturbed. Although the use of salt for food preservation has greatly declined, it remains a serious risk factor. Excessive salt intake however results more often from poor dietary habits. The WHO and AFSSA have advised to reduce daily salt intake to 5 g, whereas it is currently about 9-10 g. In spite of repeated warnings, salt abuse remains the causal agent for many disease conditions, mainly arterial hypertension. That is why legislative measures should be taken in order to limit the salt content of food industry products, particularly as a preservative in foods. A large-scale public information campaign would be necessary with participation of public health partners, particularly physicians and pharmacists.

Le New Labour à la recherche de « la meilleure relation possible entre les individus, l'État et le marché »

New Labour rejected both the big state of the “old left” and the minimal state of the “new right” in favour of “the enabling state”. According to Tony Blair, the policy pursued by the government concerning “the issue of healthy living” and, more particularly, its choices in the area of the fight against obesity and alcoholism supplied a “prime illustration” of this third model. Three instruments were privileged: industrial self-policing, partnerships with industry and public information campaigns. And yet, while New Labour flattered itself for having only chosen solutions “that work”, all scholarly studies of the issue showed that these were the least effective instruments. This paradox is in particular explained by the priority placed on good relations with the economic world, “the founding principle of New Labour” (Tony Blair), and by the politician’s fear of being accused of wanting to establish a “nanny state”.

Représentations et attitudes du public vis-à-vis du cancer

Cancer has become a major public health issue. It is thus crucial to measure the general population's behaviours, opinions and perceptions about cancer and its associated risk factors. This article describes some of the main findings of a 2005 French survey (n = 4,046). Cancer is considered by a large majority to be the most serious disease, far before HIV/AIDS and cardiovascular diseases. The carcinogenic risk that is associated to main risk factors, such as sun exposure, tobacco-smoking and alcohol use appears to be well-known. However, many people justify dangerous behaviours with strongly-anchored beliefs, which maintain dangerous behaviours for health on the long-term. What's more, the perception of risk proliferation can also generate risk denial. Because self-exempting beliefs are still widespread within the general opinion, it is essential to continue public health information campaigns dedicated to cancer prevention, so as to induce better prevention practices within the general population and to reduce stigmatisation and isolation experienced by cancer patients. If risk denial is not systematically a consequence of a lack of information, it is generally associated to a cognitive construction that gives coherence to behaviours.

Communication Strategy for a public information campaign on CO2 geological storage and on CCS as a whole: the case history in Italy from 2003 to 2008

Abstract In the frame of the INGV activities of the Group 5 of the European Platform on Zero Emissions Fossil Fuels Power Plants (Eu ZEP) INGV resumes 8 years of experience in public communication on CCS aimed to the public acceptance of this strategic group of technologies. This paper follows from the beginning (2000–2008) the history of the communication and public acceptance campaign in Italy, discriminating in details the bad/sound messages appeared on newspaper, TV, video and conference, mostly as regard the possible natural risks associated to a newly exploited technology: CO2 Capture & Storage (CCS), namely degassing/leakage to surface and triggering of micro-seismicity typically associated to industrial fluids injection. The most important messages, the mediatic errors and the obstacles encountered during this long communication campaign, mostly exploited by INGV in Italy, are described critically, tentatively avoiding that the involved stakeholders make the same mistakes in future and do not adopt the herewith suggested protocols of communication. This is strategic mostly in densely populated countries, like the European ones, often affected by the NIMBY syndrome (Not In My Back Yard) for new plants which could foreseen the CO2 storage sites in the vicinity. In the frame of the European Directivity on CCS, the above mentioned risks are mainly supported and charged on the “storage operator”: and this load is not soundly taken in considerations in the directivity itself: these risks must be spread on the “capture” community and on the “Competent Authority”, otherwise the “storage operators” are not encouraged to enter in the CCS market. INGV describes its experience in creating good communication in public populated events like the “Science Festival” held in Lecce (May 2008) and the “Science Festival” held on Genova (October 2008), also by facilities as plastic interactive CCS scaled box reproducing the CO2 storage techniques, for a complete and simple communication with general public and stakeholders. The most important messages to be highlighted on CCS are mentioned and critically reviewed in the newspaper articles since the USA-Italia bilateral agreements on the climate change, including CCS at that time.

Toxicological hazards of natural environments: Clinical reports from Poison Control Centre of Milan

The belief that approaching nature can enhance well-being, widely promoted by mass media, is widespread. People explore parks and forests searching for wild herbs, berries and mushrooms that could be used as food or medicines, thinking that all things natural are healthy and harmless while picking up toxic species or encountering a snake is not so infrequent. To point out the Italian cases concerning these natural poisons, all cases handled between 2001 and 2005 by Poison Control Centre of Milan, the leading toxicological centre in Italy, have been reviewed. Regarding plants, 4432 records were collected; the patients most frequently involved were children that had picked poisonous species at home, at school or in other public places, but the most serious cases were related to wild plants used by adults for health enhancement: three deaths were recorded. Among 4289 calls concerning mushrooms several life-threatening cases, 6 transplants and 9 deaths were recorded. Eventually, 2072 records connected to snake bites were collected, among them at least 1061 were related to Vipera spp.: three patients died. These accidents can lead to severe or lethal poisonings that, requiring intensive medical cares and antidotes, have also a social and economic cost to the National Health Service. A public information campaign should be promoted to make people more aware of the risks of these events and of the detrimental consequences that this could have. Some cases of poisonings have arisen due to incorrect information conveyed through radio, television, press and the Internet; we highlight the need for better control on the content of messages diffused through mass media.

Law and Norms in Collective Action: Maximizing Social Influence to Minimize Carbon Emissions

ABSTRACT Legal scholars have long argued that informal social norms can solve collective action problems, as long as these problems occur in close-knit groups. This knittedness may suggest that social norms, by themselves, will not be able to solve the world's largest collective action problem: anthropogenic climate change. Yet recent scholarship has taken the group knittedness hypothesis too far, suggesting that any attempt to manage social influences in large, loose-knit groups is likely to be relatively ineffective. In fact, social norms can shape individual behavior even in loose-knit groups, and climate policies that ignore norms may miss important opportunities to reduce carbon emissions. To predict how social norms might aid specific policy interventions, this Comment proposes looking at the visibility of specific behaviors rather than the knittedness of groups. According to two leading theories of the origin of social norms, norms govern the behaviors that people use to compete for social status or economic benefits. Because behaviors must be visible to become vehicles for competition, policymakers may be able to leverage norms by tailoring interventions to the visibility of carbon-emitting behaviors. For highly visible behaviors, where social influences are likely to be strong, policymakers should focus on creating a normative consensus in favor of changing behavior in order to align social influences with the desired policy. In contrast, for lower-visibility behaviors, policymakers must first focus on raising visibility, since visibility is necessary for social enforcement to begin. Finally, for inherently low-visibility behaviors, policymakers must design interventions to work entirely without social enforcement--or simply direct interventions toward other, more visible behaviors. I. INTRODUCTION II. LEGAL THEORIES OF NORMS A. Definitions: Varieties of 1. Social Norms Versus Personal Norms 2. Positive Norms Versus Normative Norms 3. Social Norms Versus Social Influences B. Reasons for Optimism? Cascade and Collective Action Models 1. Cascade Models: Social Change on the Cheap a. Dynamic Effects of Norms Models b. Sparking Cascades Through Interventions 2. Collective Action Models: Preserving the Commons a. Game Theory and Behavioral Experiments b. Empirical Studies: The Group Knittedness Hypothesis C. Persistent Pessimism: Individual Environmental Behavior III. SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND BEHAVIORAL VISIBILITY A. The Ubiquity of Social Influences 1. Theoretical Origins of Social Norms a. The Esteem Theory b. The Signaling Theory 2. Norms and Structure in Large-Scale Collective Action Problems B. Using Behavioral Visibility to Maximize Social Influence IV. APPLICATIONS A. Higher-Visibility Behaviors: Using Consensus to Stimulate Positive Social Influence 1. Public Information Campaigns 2. Anti-Idling Laws 3. On-the-Job Training 4. Technology Mandates and Incentives B. Lower-Visibility Behaviors: Raising Visibility to Enable Social Influence 1. Raising Visibility of Home Energy Use: Interventions Targeted Directly at the Home a. Direct Visibility b. Indirect Visibility 2. Raising Visibility of Home Energy Use: Targeting Analogous Behavior in Public Locations a. Workplaces b. Public Accommodations C. Inherently Low-Visibility Behaviors 1. Designing Nonsocial Norms Interventions. 2. Substituting Higher-Visibility Behaviors V. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION Law-and-norms theorists have long acknowledged the power of social influences to determine individual behavior, and some have championed efforts to manage social norms (1) in situations where enforcement difficulties, transaction costs or political realities render other regulatory techniques--such as laws or economic incentives--ineffective or politically unpalatable. …

News and Notes

News and Notes

Knowledge about Avian Influenza, European Region

To the Editor: Since the first identifications of avian influenza (H5N1) in Europe in late 2005 and early 2006, Eurobarometer survey data obtained during April–May 2006 have provided a unique opportunity to examine the knowledge of respondents across the European Union, Croatia, and Turkey about the risks and transmission of avian influenza. The H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus has caused >240 human deaths in central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa (1). Four of these deaths occurred in Turkey in 2006. Understanding gaps in the public’s knowledge about avian influenza risks and transmission provides guidance on which issues future public health information campaigns may wish to focus. From a public health perspective, a more informed general public will be less likely to unnecessarily alter their travel and food consumption behavior and more likely to take appropriate preventive actions. A 2006 Eurobarometer survey asked 29,170 residents of the 27 countries in the European Union, Croatia, and Turkey about their knowledge of avian influenza risks (2). Eurobarometer surveys are undertaken by the European Commission to monitor the EU public’s social and political opinions. The survey was conducted on a multistage random sampling basis. Therefore, the sample is representative of the whole territory surveyed. Each country’s population was randomly sampled according to rural, metropolitan, and urban population densities. A cluster of addresses was selected from each primary sampling unit by using country-dependent resources such as electoral registers. Addresses were chosen systematically by using standard random route procedures, beginning with a randomly selected initial address. The survey was conducted by face-to-face interviews in respondents’ homes. Data were collected from March 27 through May 1, 2006. This period is especially interesting when looking at Europeans’ knowledge about avian influenza risk because the first European cases of avian influenza (H5N1) were found in October 2005 in Turkey; additional cases were found later that month in Romania, Croatia, and the United Kingdom. Therefore, the period would have included media coverage about avian influenza as well as any targeted public health efforts to inform residents about avian influenza risks. By the end of this survey’s fieldwork period, 17 of the 29 countries surveyed had reported influenza virus (H5N1) in birds, 3 in mammals, and 1 in humans (3). Respondents were asked 7 questions about their knowledge of the risks humans face regarding avian influenza (Table). When we looked at these results with the aim of setting future public health information campaign objectives, we considered incorrect or “don’t know” responses to indicate public health information campaign failures. Uncertainty regarding avian influenza risks appeared to involve consumption of eggs and vaccinated, cooked poultry and whether the virus can be transmitted between humans. However, for all questions asked, more than half of the respondents answered correctly except when asked about eating poultry that had been vaccinated against avian influenza. This question also had the highest number of “don’t know” responses. Respondents are most knowledgeable about the preventive measure of culling chickens, perhaps because of the media attention these events attract. The large percentage of correct answers for some questions points to successes of previous information campaigns and media coverage, but the 40% of respondents answering incorrectly or “don’t know” to questions about poultry and egg consumption and human-to-human virus transmission leaves areas for further work. Table Knowledge of human risks associated with avian influenza, European region, 2006* These results support previous findings that knowledge about avian influenza, especially about prevention and human-to-human transmission, has scope for improvement (4,5). Persons in Europe reported that they have little ability to prevent themselves from getting avian influenza (6). Previous research in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic examined how consumers’ knowledge of avian influenza risk reduced the likelihood that consumers will substitute poultry for other foods during an avian influenza crisis. This research indicates the importance of informing persons about consumption and transmission-related risks to reduce the likelihood of unnecessary behavioral changes that can cause larger macrolevel market effects (7). The state of knowledge about avian influenza in Europe during the outbreak in the spring of 2006 leaves room for further public health information campaign efforts, especially those that increase consumers’ understanding of consumption-related avian influenza risks. Persons in Europe appear to be aware of culling procedures and the risks of touching infected birds but have a more limited understanding of how avian influenza in their region should influence their consumption patterns.

Perfil biopsicossocial de portadores de anoftalmia no sul de Minas Gerais - Brasil

To evaluate the biopsychosocial profile of patients with anophthalmia, with emphasis on the psychological and functional impact of eye loss and the social reintegration of this population. Prospective analyses of 84 patients (50 males and 34 females), rehabilitated or in the rehabilitation process with ocular prostheses were interviewed by means of a questionnaire with dimensions involving the etiology of the ocular defect, degree of adaptation to the ocular prosthesis, and impact on professional, family and social activities. The right eye was affected in 45.2% of the patients, the left eye in 51.2%, and the rest of the patients had bilateral anophthalmia. Difficulty in adapting to monocular vision was reported by 47.6% of the patients. The main causes of anophthalmia in males were eye injuries due to accidents (54%), and, in females, acquired diseases (38.2%). For the total studied population, the eye loss occurred at a mean of 20.5 +/- 18.41 years, and the elapsed time until the first rehabilitation with ocular prosthesis was of 8.6 +/- 13.10 years. Most patients (66.1%) reported satisfaction and good adaptation to the prosthesis. Feelings of sadness, shame and shyness were frequently reported. Anophtalmic patients often exhibit psychic and/or functional disorders which hinder their social, professional and family readaptation, and this is aggravated by both economic factors and lack of public services that provide rehabilitative treatment. Public information campaigns could also be useful to prevent causes that lead to ocular loss.

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: The Challenges of Management in a Developing Country

Objective: The management of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is challenging, particularly in developing countries. The objective of this study is to report the challenges and outcome of management of this pathology at an institution in Nigeria. Patients and Methods: All the children that were diagnosed with CAH at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria, between January 2002 and December 2007 were included in this retrospective study. The parameters studied were: age, sex, mode of presentation, family history of similar lesions, fi ndings on examinations and investigations, treatment given, challenges and outcome. The available parents/caregivers were interviewed in order to document their socioeconomic status, place of residence, level of education and level of awareness about CAH. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS and presented as count, frequency and percentage, while continuous data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Results: In total, 27 children aged between 2 and 15 (mean 8 ± 2.4) years were treated. Twentyfour of them were females and 3 males with a male-to-female ratio of 1:8. Delayed presentation, which was infl uenced by cultural beliefs and lack of awareness, was very common and none of the cases was diagnosed under 2 years of age. Genital manifestation was the reason for seeking medical consultation in 23 (85%) patients, while the 3 males (11%) and one female (4%) presented due to precocious puberty. All the females were mistakenly raised as males despite obvious deformity of the phallus. Establishing an accurate diagnosis was a major challenge due to the lack of facilities and manpower required, and a combination of clinical, radiological and biochemical laboratory investigations plus/minus mini-laparotomy was used. Although surgical and steroid replacement therapy was satisfactory, gender re-assignment was very challenging and required a multidisciplinary approach, counseling and relocation of the affected families. Conclusion: Management was diffi cult mainly due to late presentation, and there is an obvious need for a public information campaign in our country in order to increase the awareness of CAH in order to avoid wrong gender assignment in neonates. Keywords : Congenital adrenal hyperplasia, management, gender African Journal Of Urology Vol.14 (3) 2007: pp. 138-142

A Comparison of Demand-Side Water Management Strategies Using Disaggregate Data

Using data from Salt Lake City, Utah, for the years 1999-2002, a water demand model was developed, and the effects of price and nonprice public policies estimated. The demand for water is found to be price inelastic except in summer months. The effects of a public information campaign to reduce water use were also estimated and found to be moderately effective. The household level panel data used in this study give more accurate estimates of these elasticities than found in previous research.

Voter Registration Cards, Political Subjectivity, and Trust in Paper in the Gambia

This article examines the voter registration card and the social context of voter registrations in the Gambia, West Africa. Drawing on recent ethnographies of documents and using data on worries over foreigners’ efforts to fraudulently obtain voter registration cards, a public information campaign on the Gambian electoral process, international legal material on the Gambian democracy, and observations at voter registration stations, the article argues that the voter registration card delineates not only a national subject but also a generic political subject. This subject is characterized by a commitment to a bureaucratic process and an appreciation of the card as an official identification document inseparable from the person it identifies. The article also considers how the voter registration process allows Gambians to compare their experiences to citizens of other countries. In a political context of an authoritarian government and a weak rule of law, this comparison offers an ideal of a modern democratic state that both enables criticism of the Gambia’s present situation and confirms the centrality of a generic political subject to the realization of that ideal.

Market Research for the Optimization of the Consumers Response to the Recent Award of a Protected Geographical Indication to a Local Product, Beans from “La Bañeza-León” (Spain)

In Europe several low involvement food products with reduced productions have been awarded with a PGI or PDO during the last few years. The beans from La Bañeza-León (Spain) are an example of this and received a PGI in September 2005. The general objective was to appraise the effect that the award of the PGI to such kinds of food products has in consumers, in order to optimize the managerial and public policies, and to get maximum advantage from the PGI distinction in the commercialization of them. For low involvement products with PGI, the general guidelines should be to keep the prices as low as possible, to develop intensive public information campaigns about the award of the PGI, and to offer the product in medium or high involvement restaurants, in order to reach those consumers willing to pay more for the product, that are mainly in the age range of 36 to 45 years. It is also discussed that the PGI label would have more interest than a private brand. Specifically for beans from “La Bañeza-León,” the PGI Council should urgently tackle a promotional campaign about the product and the PGI award that should reach to most of the consumers in the target markets, taking into account that as the distance from the production area increases the knowledge of the product decreases. This campaign should help the consumer to clearly identify the beans from the PGI by using an attractive logo, and to inform them that the beans from the PGI are superior than substitutive beans in taste and cooking time. Finally, public campaigns that promote the consumption of beans among youth would be necessary.