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Introduction
Influencing decision makers “upstream” from a wicked problem is one avenue to address these complex problems such as obesity, environmental degradation, fast fashion and drug use (Gortmaker et al., 2011; Rittel and Webber, 1973; Kennedy, 2016). Upstream social marketing may target individuals at the organisation, industry or government level. Those in key policy decision positions for mitigating wicked problems. Rittel and Webber (1973) surmised that wicked problems are messy and difficult to define, with multiple, interlinked and perpetuating factors (for further information see Commonwealth of Australia, 2012). There are no straightforward causes and solutions to wicked problems. This is because of their complexity, uncertainty and divergence of interpretation, and often rely “on political judgments rather than scientific certitudes” (Head, 2008, p. 102) which can amount in many ethical issues (Szablewska and Kubacki, 2017). Upstream social marketing provides a method to influence the political judgements of upstream decision makers.
A key criticism of social marketing is that it tends to focus on individual- and community-level change without addressing upstream contextual and environmental factors (Wallack et al., 1993). Not only is downstream social marketing in danger of becoming expert-driven instead of citizen-driven but also individual-level interventions assume a personal responsibility and consumer sovereignty that may not exist for all problems (Cherrier and Gurrieri, 2014; French and Gordon, 2015). Consequently, structural change is aimed at policymakers and implementers but is often difficult to achieve (Andreasen, 2006) through strategic social marketing. Strategic social marketing can be defined as “The systematic, critical and reflexive application of social marketing principals to enhance social policy selection, objective setting, planning and operational delivery” (French and Gordon, 2015, p. 45). Strategic social marketing goes beyond the tactical level of social marketing in its coordination with community and upstream actors.
Upstream social marketing is a method for social marketers to influence policy and solution adoption, as it focusses on the macro/structural environment moving beyond the individual or community level of downstream and midstream social marketing. It specifically tries to create behaviour and attitude change in “voting behaviours, activity in policy debates and cabinet and committee meetings, judgements, corporate policies, adjudications and applications of legal principles and precedents” (Gordon, 2013, p. 1530). The upstream social marketing metaphor comes from Wallack et al....