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Corporations and Health Watch provides activists, researchers, health professionals, policy makers and others with information and resources so they can act to change corporate practices that harm health.

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Vaccine Promotion in the Hands of a Corporation: The Missed Opportunity of Merck’s Marketing of Gardasil

Over the last several years, human papillomavirus (HPV) has gone from relative obscurity to a being a source of much discussion, primarily thanks to marketing on the part of Merck Pharmaceuticals. In June 2006, Merck received FDA approval for a new vaccine that protects against four of the more than thirty types of sexually transmitted HPV, Gardasil. In this piece, anthropologist S.D. Gottlieb analyzes Merck’s use of marketing to position Gardasil, a vaccine that protects primarily against a common sexually transmitted infection, instead as a powerful vaccine against cancer.
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Corporations and the Food Movement: The Case of the KFC Double Down

KFC introduced the Double Down sandwich, which features two fried chicken breasts in lieu of a bun, in April of this year. In light of Michael Pollan’s recent description of the country’s food movement as a “big, lumpy tent” with sometimes conflicting factions, CHW editor Emma Tsui explores what the Double Down can tell us about ways that corporations might try to play on differences between some of the movement’s distinct subgroups to sell their products.
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The Health Impact of Targeted Marketing: An Interview with Sonya Grier

What is targeted marketing, how do corporations use it, and how can public health advocates better harness targeted marketing for their own purposes? We ask business school professor and public health researcher Sonya Grier to answer these questions and more in an interview following the publication of her paper entitled “Targeted Marketing and Public Health” in a recent issue of the Annual Review of Public Health.
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New Resources on Alcohol Policy

Alcoholism is the third leading cause of preventable mortality and morbidity in the United States. At a May 2010 conference in New York City, a group of researchers and public health professionals met to discuss ways that New York City could develop policies to reduce the burden of alcohol on the city’s health. Corporations and Health Watch posts three of the presentations from that meeting.
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Teaching about Corporations and Health

As the influence of corporations on population health grows, it will be necessary to prepare researchers, practitioners, and advocates who have the knowledge and skills to analyze and contribute to changing harmful corporate practices. In this ongoing series, Corporations and Health Watch offers readers materials about courses on business and health. In this issue, we feature two syllabi on economic globalization and health designed by Professor William H. Wiist.
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California county votes to ban the use of toys to attract kids to unhealthy fast-food meals

In August, Santa Clara County in California may become the nation’s first municipality to ban the use of toys in marketing fast food to kids. On May 11^th, the county board passed the final vote needed to ban the toys that typically accompany children’s meals in fast food chains. CHW writer Lauren Evans explores the context for and reactions to this effort.
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Photo Credits:

1. The Orange County Register via Creative Commons
2. greenkozi
3. http://friendsofirony.com/2010/01/04/mmm-mcnuggets/