Marisa de Andrade

Promotion of electronic cigarettes: tobacco marketing reinvented?

Electronic cigarettes are not subject to the same marketing controls as tobacco products. Marisa de Andrade, Gerard Hastings, and Kathryn Angus argue that their advertising is likely to appeal to young people and undermine tobacco control policy

Tobacco harm reduction: the devil is in the deployment

The concept of harm reduction in tobacco control is exciting interest among policy makers and industry. Gerard Hastings, Marisa de Andrade, and Crawford Moodie argue that it presents public health with some challenges

Reputation, Relationships, Risk Communication, and the Role of Trust in the Prevention and Control of Communicable Disease: A Review

Population-level compliance with health protective behavioral advice to prevent and control communicable disease is essential to optimal effectiveness. Multiple factors affect perceptions of trustworthiness, and trust in advice providers is a significant predeterminant of compliance. While competency in assessment and management of communicable disease risks is critical, communications competency may be equally important. Organizational reputation, quality of stakeholder relationships and risk information provision strategies are trust moderating factors, whose impact is strongly influenced by the content, timing and coordination of communications. This article synthesizes the findings of 2 literature reviews on trust moderating communications and communicable disease prevention and control. We find a substantial evidence base on risk communication, but limited research on other trust building communications. We note that awareness of good practice historically has been limited although interest and the availability of supporting resources is growing. Good practice and policy elements are identified: recognition that crisis and risk communications require different strategies; preemptive dialogue and planning; evidence-based approaches to media relations and messaging; and building credibility for information sources. Priority areas for future research include process and cost-effectiveness evaluation and the development of frameworks that integrate communication and biomedical disease control and prevention functions, conceptually and at scale.

Promotional Communications for Influenza Vaccination: A Systematic Review

The authors conducted a systematic review that aimed to map current practice and identify effective practice in promotional communications for seasonal influenza vaccination in Europe. They identified 22 studies from 7 European countries. Included studies were primarily outcome evaluations of communications promoting vaccination to health care workers and elderly adults. Evidence on communications to improve public acceptance was sparse. A range of communication approaches, methods, materials, and channels were used, frequently in combination. All forms of promotional communications have the potential to increase uptake in health care workers and can also improve uptake among patients. There was promising evidence that mass communication methods, delivered as standalone activities or as one component of a communication mix, can improve uptake in target populations. Education for health care workers and improved service delivery are common adjuncts to promotional communications that were associated with effectiveness. The evidence suggests that personalized communications, combined with improved service delivery, might boost rates of uptake among elderly adults. Future development of good practice could be enhanced by more systematic, theory-based intervention design and more detailed reporting of process and outcome evaluations. Vaccine hesitancy is increasingly prevalent; more policy and research to improve public acceptance should therefore be considered.

Young Women Smokers’ Perceptions and Use of Counterfeit Cigarettes: Would Plain Packaging Make a Difference?

Opponents of plain tobacco packaging argue that it would make production of counterfeit tobacco products cheaper; lower costs for consumers; confuse consumers in respect to product authenticity; and increase appeal and purchase of counterfeit tobacco. We explored the last of these contentions with young women smokers (N = 49), aged 16–24 years, recruited in Glasgow (Scotland). Participants were firstly asked about their perceptions and purchase of counterfeit cigarettes. Each group was then shown a mock display of legitimate and counterfeit plain cigarette packs. All the packs shown were the same colour (brown) with the only difference being the price and brand name. Participants were asked what brand they would smoke if all cigarettes came in brown (plain) packaging. Purchase of counterfeit cigarettes was lower for 16–17 year olds than 18–24 year olds. Perceptions of counterfeit cigarettes were negative, with concerns expressed about content and taste. All participants said that if pack appearance was standardised they would continue to smoke the same brand of legitimate cigarettes that they currently smoke or down-trade to cheaper legitimate brands. Non-users of counterfeit cigarettes indicated that they would remain non-users should all cigarettes come in uniform packaging. Counterfeit users, at least those willing to smoke counterfeit cigarettes again, indicated that they would still buy counterfeit cigarettes if pack appearance was standardised, primarily due to the lower price. For young women smokers in this study, plain packaging had no bearing on perceived appeal of counterfeit cigarettes.

Public relations and Aca- Media: Autoethnography, ethics and engagement in the pharmaceutical industry

This article presents an autoethnography, which emerged as I shifted from being a journalist to an academic researcher investigating the role of power and communication in pharmaceutical regulation. It presents a critical, personal and reflexive account of the opportunities and challenges faced while gathering and presenting data for a doctoral thesis in my dual role as a ‘hackademic’. It also traces my subjective experiences as I made sense of my hybrid professional identity, and explains how analytical autoethnography may be used as a research method to enable the researcher’s experiences to become the topic under investigation. The aim of this research is to explore the tensions that may arise when a journalist becomes an academic, and the relationship between the public relations (PR) practitioner and the journalist. My work flags up differences between codes of ethics for research, PR and journalism, and details the challenges I encountered navigating my way through these differences. The articles also contributes to the hybrid identity and careers literature by expounding some of the struggles that may be encountered during the transition from practitioner to academic.This article presents an autoethnography, which emerged as I shifted from being a journalist to an academic researcher investigating the role of power and communication in pharmaceutical regulation. It presents a critical, personal and reflexive account of the opportunities and challenges faced while gathering and presenting data for a doctoral thesis in my dual role as a ‘hackademic’. It also traces my subjective experiences as I made sense of my hybrid professional identity, and explains how analytical autoethnography may be used as a research method to enable the researcher’s experiences to become the topic under investigation. The aim of this research is to explore the tensions that may arise when a journalist becomes an academic, and the relationship between the public relations (PR) practitioner and the journalist. My work flags up differences between codes of ethics for research, PR and journalism, and details the challenges I encountered navigating my way through these differences. The articles al...

Responsible food marketing and standardisation: an exploratory study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility and utility of developing an independently defined and accredited benchmark standard for responsible food marketing. To identify provisional evidence and insights on factors likely to be critical to its successful development and its capacity to strengthen the effectiveness of responsible food marketing policy. Design/methodology/approach – Desk-based cross-policy domain case study. Findings – There is promising evidence that the development and deployment of an evidence-based, independently defined and verified responsible food marketing standard is feasible. Provisional findings on factors critical to the development of an effective standard and strategically significant evidence gaps are presented as insights in support of future food marketing policy and research planning. Research limitations/implications – Further investigation of these preliminary findings is required. Practical implications – The study has provisionally identified a...