Evaluating Social Marketing Messages in New Zealand’s Like Minds Campaign and Its Effect on Stigma

Abstract

Background: A key objective of government and social marketers is to remove the institutionalized stigma of mental illness, increasing mental health service uptake. While research has evaluated past campaigns based on changes in attitudes and beliefs, very little research has examined the communication messages used in social marketing campaigns. Focus of the Article: This impact evaluation research identifies the institutionalized cultural-moral norms incorporated into New Zealand’s Like Minds mental health advertisements and examines how attitudes and beliefs changed over time in response to these norms. Importance to the Social Marketing Field: This research offers a new approach to social marketing evaluation and demonstrates the importance of consistent incorporation of cultural-moral institutional norms in social marketing campaigns. Method: Using macro-social marketing theory, thematic analysis is used to identify the cultural-moral institutional norms in the Like Minds campaign advertisements over a 10-year period (2002–2012). Results: The Like Minds campaign was found to have multiple cultural-moral institutional norms, such as Mental illness as a villain, Personal responsibility, and Inherent human dignity, as well as utilizing two different institutionalization processes of Socialization and Identity Formation. However, these norms were inconsistently and sometimes contradictorily presented and as a result, not all changes in mental health stigma beliefs and attitudes show long term change. Rates for service uptake also had mixed results during the campaign duration, though overall an increase in uptake was found. Recommendations for Research and Practice: The research highlights the importance of understanding the underlying institutionalized cultural-moral norms presented in communications and aligning those with the overall objectives of a social marketing campaign. Limitations: Like Minds campaign phases 2 to 5 are analyzed, phase 1 was inaccessible for analysis and advertisements after 2012 are not analyzed.

‘Give It Up!’: A Macro-Social Marketing Approach to India's Clean Cooking Fuel Access

“…The key is to introduce, propagate, and institutionalize desirable institutional and social norms and replace those norms and micro-structures that perpetuate and sustain the wicked problem (Domegan 2008; Kennedy 2016; Kennedy and Parsons 2012). Such a process of institutionalizing norms—for example, of personal responsibility and inherent human dignity—is evident in the case of New Zealand's mental health advertisements (Kemper and Kennedy 2021). However, long-term changes in beliefs and attitudes need consistent presentation of these norms, devoid of contradictions (Kemper and Kennedy 2021).…”

“…Such a process of institutionalizing norms -for example, of personal responsibility and inherent human dignity-is evident in the case of New Zealand's mental health advertisements (Kemper and Kennedy 2021). However, longterm changes in beliefs and attitudes need consistent presentation of these norms, devoid of contradictions (Kemper and Kennedy 2021). The process of institutionalizing norms is also present in Give It Up and PMUY programs but has yet to be analyzed.…”

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“…Extant work ranges from broad examinations of the effect of materialism on consumer mental wellbeing (Flurry and Swimberghe, 2021; Reeves et al , 2012) and coping strategies to improve mental wellness (Machin et al , 2019), to understanding specific mental disorders such as addiction (Berry et al , 2017; Hirschman, 1992; Martin et al , 2013; Shoham and Makovec Brenčič, 2003), depression (Callaghan et al , 2013; Griffith et al , 2022; McCosker and Gerrard, 2021), anxiety (Bujisic et al , 2017; Kemp et al , 2021) and eating disorders (Faber et al , 1995; Peterson, 1987). Marketing research helps practitioners identify optimal pricing (Ogden and Ogden, 1992), product design (Larson and Bock, 2016), distribution channels (Purani and Kumar, 2018; Rosenbaum et al , 2016) and promotional strategies (Callaghan et al , 2013; Donohue and Berndt, 2004; Jones, 2001), supports understanding of the mental health consumption journey (Lipscomb et al , 2010; Wyllie and Carlson, 2018) and informs mental health public policy (Berthon et al , 2019; Kelly et al , 1996; Wolburg, 2005) and stigma reduction (Gelb, 2008; Kemper and Kennedy, 2021; Mirabito et al , 2016; Yeh et al , 2017). Scholarship at the intersection of mental health and marketing is vital with interest from scholars continuing to grow rapidly.…”

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“…The basic premise behind its evolution and conception was to apply commercial marketing techniques to address a wide range of social issues and problems (Kotler & Levy, 1969; Kotler & Zaltman, 1971). Social marketing has focussed on influencing personal and social behaviour to achieve greater social wellbeing by addressing a wide range of individual and communal issues; such as green consumer behaviour (Prusa & Sadilek, 2019), storm water management and water efficiency program (Fries, Cook, & Lynes, 2020; Smith, Lynes, & Wolfe, 2019; ), food wastage (Kim, Rundle-Thiele, Knox, & Hodgkins, 2020), black lives matter (social/racial inequality) (Grier & Poole, 2020), compulsive buying behaviour (Sarghie, 2021), environment and biodiversity (Green, Crawford, Williamson, & DeWan, 2019), COVID-19 (Lee, 2020) and health issues (Kemper & Kennedy, 2021). Historically, these social efforts were predominantly focused on public health matters while addressing other social issues.…”