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.

Politian: a critical analysis

Why even look at Politian, an unfinished failure? While it is true that Politian was a failure for its time and surely one of Poe's least successful attempts, it may improve on a stage with a more modern perspective. If not solely for examination of Poe's artistic effort, Politian also warrants a closer read due to its historical relevance by way of Beauchamp and Sharp. Poe, a most fastidious editor of his work, was ultimately required because of financial constraints to lay aside Politian in its unfinished state. As a result, the unedited Politian may provide insight into the writing process of Poe that other polished pieces cannot, and that, if nothing else, warrants a more precise study of his play.