Hey guess what misinformation works

Addiction Economy Thought for Today - hey guess what, misinformation and undermining policy action (3 & 4 of our Economic Model) really does work in prioritising the interests of companies over that of individuals and society to the detriment of public health. (Of course it does, they wouldn't do it if they didn't!) So time to stop them.

Fascinating case study here on the alcohol sector from Nason Maani, may van Schalkwyk and Mark Pettigrew who show how these business/government 'partnerships' are so effective 'by promoting industry-favourable understanding of alcohol harms, normalizing partnership in the minds of public health interviewees, allowing for leverage
over government initiatives and pretexts for engagement with
policy-makers' and it also helps business by 'displacing more effective policy options and marginalising civil society voices'.

Until embarrassingly recently I didn't see the harm in these business funded bodies like Portman Group and government/business partnerships and initiatives DrinkAware and GambleAware which use company money to produce information to help the public. In fact when NGOs used to get agitated about it, I thought they were being a bit OTT. Doh, that was naive of me!

Here an analysis using FOI information and conversations about the Drink Free Days partnership. Really fascinating to read the back and forth and how influence actually works.

There will be many who think that 'partnerships' with business is fine, how things work, what's the problem. This is why we did 'the addiction economy' project, because it is not fine when commercial interests are counter to the public interest and result in widespread harms to individuals and society.