The More Things Change: Examining Alcohol Industry Issues Management Strategies
Every industry carefully plans how to advance its business agenda and counter threats to profitability. What makes industries change the strategies they use to respond to public pressure to modify health damaging practices? Do announced changes in practice reflect real change or are they simply old wine in new bottles? In this report, Corporations and Health Watch analyzes changes in alcohol industry responses to criticisms of its marketing practices.
A Reluctant Activist Takes on the Alcohol Industry
What moves people to become activists concerned about business practices and health? How can ordinary citizens move from outrage to action? To answer these questions and to learn more about current efforts to change alcohol industry marketing practices, Corporations and Health Watch interviewed Robert Pezzolesi, the Founder and President of the Center for Alcohol Policy Solutions in Syracuse, New York.
Activists in Review: The Yes Men—taking on corporations, one prank at a time
In their ongoing efforts to reform corporations, advocates have used diverse tactics to expose detrimental practices or push for reform. On the one hand, public health professionals can change business practices that harm health by conducting research that documents the health problems associated with a particular product or industry and then bring these findings to the attention of policy makers. Another approach is to use tactics that expose and ridicule these types of corporate practices in an attempt to provoke media and public attention.
After criticism, food industry abandons Smart Choices Program
In August 2009, major U.S. food manufacturers—including Kellogg, Kraft, ConAgra, General Mills, Pepsico, Sun-Maid, and Unilever—implemented the “Smart Choices” nutrition labeling program. Spending more than $1.47 million in 2008 and 2009 to develop the system featuring a green check mark and logo on foods that meet certain nutritional standards, 14 processed foods giants developed the system to promote their own products as “healthy.” Two months later, on October 23rd, the Smart Choices program announced that it would “voluntarily postpone active operations and not encourage wider use of the logo at this time by either new or currently enrolled companies.” What happened?
Photo Credits:
1. championsdrinkresponsibly
2. Catch of the Day Credit: Robert Pezzolesi
3. itzafineday
4. Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Posted January 2010
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