Responses to health promotion campaigns: resistance, denial and othering

A wide variety of health promotion strategies are employed which are designed to educate members of the public with the ultimate goal of gradual general cultural change and individual behaviour change. The object is a closer alignment of individual and population health-related behaviours with 'ideal' notions of what a healthy citizen might be. These campaigns are not taken up in any straightforward way, but people negotiate the messages in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. Drawing on data generated in focus groups, this article explores this complexity by addressing the themes of resistance, denial and othering. This article also identifies an unintended consequence that may arise from processes of othering that may serve to reinforce stigmatisation and inequality rather than mitigating it. Keywords: public health campaignsresistancedenialotheringstigmatised identities Acknowledgements This research was supported by funding from the Department of Geography, University of Canterbury. The authors would like to thank the participants who took the time to participate in this study and Simon Kingham who facilitated funding. Both authors contributed equally to this article. Notes Notes 1. Obesity is most commonly defined as a body mass index (BMI) in excess of 30 for Europeans and 32 for and Pacific Islanders (Hider Citation2001). 2. Some of these older posters can be accessed via the Alexander Turnbull Library website (Thompson Citation2003). 3. In 2007, a law against smacking children was introduced in New Zealand. Vigorous debate ensued with some arguing that the government had no right to 'interfere' in personal lives in this way.