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rly using external evaluating agents to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practice of the high risk group. The other stakeholders are also involved in this evaluation to see how they could further improve their contribution to the health education and health seeking process. Thus the process is constantly evolving. At the end of the program, final evaluation is undertaken and the results are available for all the stake-holders. This serves as a learning lesson. During the final evaluation, issues of sustainability of the project are also addressed.

This approach is very different from the regular health education sessions which are primarily a top-down approach and hardly participatory.

The other example of social marketing being very effective is in the case of nutritional educational programs targeting teenagers. The food intake data in countries like Britain and America indicate that the intake of nutritious food like fruits, grains, vegetables and dairy products is low while intake of foods rich in sodium, saturated fats and sugars are high. Any large scale intervention to target the scale and magnitude of this problem requires an in-depth knowledge of the target population, their food sources, their barriers to seeking healthy foods, the methods of health education available and required as well as the available resources in terms of healthy foods.

Volunteers in the adolescent age group are asked what benefits they associate with increased consumption of nutrient rich food, what factors prevent them from consuming these foods, how they prefer to learn about foods and nutrition. They are also asked questions about what they think would be a ‘cool’ advertisement for food, where they usually hang out and how they would market products to their own age groups. Many of the youngsters indicate that they like yoghurt, chocolate drinks and fruits but not vegetables. They also prefer foods that are convenient and familiar while increasing scholastic and physical performance. Some of the suggestions given by the teenagers included disguising the taste and appearance of less favoured foods and improving the taste of some foods by adding other foods. They also felt that the nutrient rich foods were less available as forms of snacks and more difficult to procure and prepare. The potential channels of delivery were posters, television, computers, billboards, cooking shows and radio contests. They also preferred hands on experience of preparing foods. This then leads to the next step of social marketing of the health education program with focus on the placement, pricing and promotion of these nutrient rich foods. Traditional methods of health education do not take into account many of these issues. They may be outdated and ‘out of sync’ with the new generation which might most require the educational input. Repeating the same message over and over again amounts to ‘flogging a dead horse’ and is unlikely to have the desired outcome. The media can provide very strong and contradictory messages that can confuse the audience. Many television programs may re-inforce the message that drinking and smoking is a sign of maturity or that it is fashionable. Many of these commercial advertisements are televised following extensive Market research about what attracts and appeals to the audience. Beauty, style, health and being better than one’s peer group are important reasons for the target audience to choose c