Challenge that Faces Positive Marketing of Healthy Behaviour Essay

Challenge that Faces Positive Marketing of Healthy Behaviour - Essay Example Most consumer items such as cigarette have side effects, which are supposed to be clearly indicated on their packaging. In most countries, advertisements or any marketing information of such commodities should be accompanied by any side effects (Bond, 1993). The main challenge of such advertisements is the message that promotes the product. For instance, cigarette advertisement uses healthy and successful people to show the positive side of smoking. In most cases, the advertisements use public icons such as musicians and sport men to advertise cigarettes. It is difficult to convince the audience of such information that cigarette smoking or junky foods are harmful to their health. The other challenge facing positive advertisements is lack of uncertainty in the message. For instance, a typical message against tobacco smoking will contain information such as cigarette smoking is harmful to your health, smoking can cause lung cancer and cigarette smoking increase anxiety. Such messages lack certainty and hence they are open to different forms of challenges (Rokeach, 1973). Firstly, the message stating that cigarette smoking is harmful to the health of a smoker fails to state the extent to which smoking is harmful. In addition, adequate studies have not been conducted to establish the extent to which these health problems are related to smoking. ... Cigarette ads should state that smoking a certain number of sticks per day increases the risk of developing cancer by a certain proportion. The other challenge facing positive advertisement is the attitude that people have towards negative behaviours. People associate these negative behaviours with lifestyles. For instance, smoking is associated with leisure while junk foods are associated with busy or wealthy people. It is difficult to change the mentality that people have on these commodities through positive advertisement messages. For instance telling parents to stop feeding their children with junk foods seems to lower their social status. On the other hand telling people to stop smoking is similar to telling them to stop associating themselves with a certain class of friends. People always oppose such information since it does not contribute to their social well-being. Advertisements that target negative behaviours and certain commodities such as cigarettes and fast foods tend to criminalize the commodities or behaviour (Rokeach, 1973). In addition, the ads portray the negative sides of the commodities or behaviours. People always oppose information that warns them against certain action. In addition, people always want to experiment with things that have been declared harmful. For instance, people want to experiment the negativities of cigarette smoking. The main reason why cigarette smoking has not been banned in most countries is that making the commodity illegal will make it more attractive (Bond, 1993). This is similar to hard drug such as cocaine and marijuana. Due to the illegal status of these drugs, people always use them as a way of showing their defiance towards the