Marketing Social Change: A Comparative Historical and Methodological Analysis of Anti-Smoking Endeavors

Even though assessing social marketing endeavors proves to be challenging, evaluators can learn from previous campaigns and identify which facets of social marketing events, programs and campaigns need to be improved. Additionally, by analyzing social movements and evaluating how they connect to social marketing, we can gain a clearer view on ways to ameliorate the field of social marketing. As social marketing becomes increasingly sophisticated and similar to commercial marketing, there is hope that social marketing can yield higher rates of success in the future. Friend and Levy (2002) claimed that it was nearly impossible to compare social marketing endeavors using quantitative criteria and advocate the use of qualitative methods. However, if social marketing scholars developed a more systematic paradigm to assess events, programs and campaigns employing a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods, then it would be easier to establish which social marketing efforts generated more success than others. When there are too many confounding variables, conclusions cannot always be drawn and evaluations may not be viewed as legitimate. As a result, critics become skeptical of social marketing’s value and both the importance and credibility of social marketing decline. With the establishment of proper criteria and evaluation methods, social marketing can progress and initiate more social change.

Characterization of AFN1, a Gene Associated with Cereal Grain Germination

The AFN1 gene is transiently expressed in germinating oat grains. As AFN1 is not expressed in dormant oat grains during imbibition, we hypothesize that AFN1 may be involved in stimulating the germination process. Sequence analysis of an AFN1 cDNA clone indicates that the AFN1 polypeptide is similar to a previously identified abscisic acid (ABA) glucosyl transferase. This suggests that AFN1 may be acting to glucosylate ABA, thereby inactivating it. As the hormone ABA is known to inhibit germination, ABA glucosylation/inactivation could lead to germination in grains expressing AFN1. To test this hypothesis, we have constructed an expression plasmid that encodes an MBP::AFN1 (maltose binding protein) fusion protein. E. coli cells carrying the expression plasmid were found to produce the MBP::AFN1 fusion protein as a substantial fraction of total protein. We are currently in the process of purifying the MBP::AFN1 fusion protein by affinity chromatography, so that it can be assayed for ABA glucosyl transferase activity. We also wish to test the effect of AFN1 gene expression during grain imbibition on the germination behavior of the grains. To this end, we have constructed plasmids for the overexpression and RNAi-based suppression of AFN1 in transgenic plants. These plasmids have been introduced into oat cells by particle bombardment and we are in the process of regenerating transgenic plants for study.