Lori Dorfman

Andrew Cheyne

Laura Nixon

Pamela Mejia

In 2012 and 2013, Richmond and El Monte, CA, and Telluride, CO, became the first communities in the country to vote on citywide sugary drink taxes. In the face of massive spending from the soda industry, all three proposals failed at the ballot box, but the vigorous public debates they inspired provide valuable insights for future policy efforts. We analyzed local and national news coverage of the three proposals and found that pro-tax arguments appeared most frequently in the news. Advocates for the taxes focused primarily on the potential community health benefits the taxes could produce and the health harms caused by sodas. Tax opponents capitalized on the existing political tensions in each community, including racial and ethnic divisions in Richmond, anti-government attitudes in El Monte, and a culture of individualism in Telluride. Pro-tax arguments came mainly from city officials and public health advocates, while anti-tax forces recruited a wide range of people to speak against the tax. The soda industry itself was conspicuously absent from news coverage. Instead, in each community, the industry funded anti-tax coalition groups, whose affiliation with industry was often not acknowledged in the news. Our analysis of this coverage exposes how soda tax opponents used strategies established by the tobacco industry to fight regulation. Despite these defeats, tax advocates can take inspiration from more mature public health campaigns, which indicate that such policies may take many years to gain traction.

News Coverage of Local Proposals to Tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Richmond, El Monte and Telluride

Big Soda's Long Shadow

Lawrence Wallack

David Jernigan

Makani Themba-Nixon

Using the media to promote public health is an innovative and valuable approach. Media Advocacy and Public Health develops the concept of media advocacy as a central strategy for the prevention of public health problems. How we think about health problems, and what we do about them, is largely determined by how they are reported on television, radio, and in the newspaper. Often, crucial issues of public health policy are discussed and decided only after they are made visible by the media. A traditional communication strategy like social marketing focuses on giving people a message. Media advocacy gives people a voice. The first book of its kind, Media Advocacy and Public Health lays out the theoretical framework and practical guidelines to successful media advocacy strategies. Eight case studies, ranging from alcohol to AIDS, vividly illustrate how media advocacy has been successfully applied.

Power for Prevention

Media Advocacy and Public Health

Lori Dorfman

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