Men’s Understandings of Social Marketing and Health: Neo-Liberalism and Health Governance

Abstract

Social marketing for health has become a core component of UK government strategies to improving wellbeing and tackle inequalities amongst diverse populations, including men. Social marketing strategies adopt the methods of commercial marketing to promote social good through encouraging behavioural change in individuals. These methods have been employed with men in the UK as part of a wider movement to improve male health. Drawing on original empirical data collected with 50 unemployed men in the UK, this paper and considers men’s responses to social marketing strategies and their own understandings of health, its determinants and personal responsibility. Data presented illuminates men’s critical stance towards social marketing for health and its imperatives for behavioural change in the face of wider societal determinants of wellbeing which shape both their health behaviours and experiences. Critical discussions of the use of such strategies as part of neo-liberal models of health governance are offered.