The ubiquitous marketing of energy-dense, nutrient-poor food and beverages is a key modifiable influence on childhood dietary patterns and obesity. Much of the research on television food advertising is focused on identifying and quantifying unhealthy food marketing with comparatively few studies examining persuasive marketing techniques to promote unhealthy food to children. This review identifies the most frequently documented persuasive marketing techniques to promote food to children via television. A systematic search of eight online databases using key search terms identified 267 unique articles. Thirty-eight articles met the inclusion criteria. A narrative synthesis of the reviewed studies revealed the most commonly reported persuasive techniques used on television to promote food to children. These were the use of premium offers, promotional characters, nutrition and health-related claims, the theme of taste, and the emotional appeal of fun. Identifying and documenting these commonly reported persuasive marketing techniques to promote food to children on television is critical for the monitoring and evaluation of advertising codes and industry pledges and the development of further regulation in this area. This has a strong potential to curbing the international obesity epidemic besieging children throughout the world.

This paper reports on a complex environmental approach to addressing 'wicked' health promotion problems devised to inform policy for enhancing food security and physical activity among Māori, Pacific and low-income people in New Zealand. This multi-phase research utilized literature reviews, focus groups, stakeholder workshops and key informant interviews. Participants included members of affected communities, policy-makers and academics. Results suggest that food security and physical activity 'emerge' from complex systems. Key areas for intervention include availability of money within households; the cost of food; improvements in urban design and culturally specific physical activity programmes. Seventeen prioritized intervention areas were explored in-depth and recommendations for action identified. These include healthy food subsidies, increasing the statutory minimum wage rate and enhancing open space and connectivity in communities. This approach has moved away from seeking individual solutions to complex social problems. In doing so, it has enabled the mapping of the relevant systems and the identification of a range of interventions while taking account of the views of affected communities and the concerns of policy-makers. The complex environmental approach used in this research provides a method to identify how to intervene in complex systems that may be relevant to other 'wicked' health promotion problems.

Revitalising traditional kai has considerable potential to improve food security for Māori, both directly in terms of food supply and by providing income, and warrants policy and practical support. These findings have implications for other indigenous cultures who are struggling to be food secure.

Little has been written about interviewing policy-makers in health promotion and public health research. This article explores the process, pitfalls and profits of semi-structured interviews with policy-makers in 10 research projects conducted in New Zealand. Key members of each research team were surveyed about their research and findings verified against research publications. Key aspects of the process of policy-maker interviews include gaining ethical approval, navigating gatekeepers, using personal contacts and multiple research dissemination methods. Pitfalls of interviewing policy-makers include interviewers not having enough knowledge of the topic so efforts were made to use knowledgeable researchers or up-skill others. Interviews provide access to specialist knowledge of the policy process which cannot be obtained by other methods. While this study was conducted in one jurisdiction, it has implications for other countries. Effective policy-maker interviews in health promotion policy research could contribute to improvements in the quality of data collected and uptake of research by policy-makers.

Protecting consumers from the unsafe practices of fringe lenders requires a combined approach of discouraging the undesirable practices of fringe lenders through regulation and encouraging the growth of safe, affordable micro-finance options. Financial literacy education is a valuable activity for directing consumer attention to the safest options, but in isolation will have limited effect if options are limited. Health promoters have a valuable role to play in implementing these interventions.