This is a somewhat unusual book about social marketing. Not only does it present the traditional marketing paradigm with lots of “how to” lists, the authors argue well that considerable marketing of the concept of public health is itself needed. More than other US marketing or advocacy texts, this book looks at why the current health issues exist, and presents a good case for why we need to think differently about public health marketing than we have.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 deals with why marketing in public health is different from commercial marketing, and that the concept of public health itself needs to be promoted as a way of making the policy climate for public health interventions more receptive. Siegel and Doner document well the various barriers public health practitioners face with regard to marketing, …