Having celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011, social marketing is increasingly accepted today as an effective behavioural change tool that can be used to change social behaviours, such as encouraging people to recycle more, make healthier eating choices, increase the amount of sunscreen used, and to use condoms to prevent disease transmission, amongst many other desired social behaviours. The growing popularity of using social marketing to change behaviour is reflected in increasing research interest and a growth in people practising in the social marketing field. As social marketing matures into an academic discipline in its own right, we are beginning to see diversity in the way it is understood and implemented by governments, commercial organisations and third sector organisations in different parts of the world.

Contemporary Issues in Social Marketing is an outcome of the discussions held between social marketing academics and practitioners at the 2012 International Social Marketing Conference (ISM 2012), which was held in June 2012 in Brisbane, Australia. ISM 2012 drew together 180 social marketing researchers and practitioners in the corporate and not for profit sector, along with representatives of all levels of government to delve into the challenges currently faced in social marketing. Contemporary Issues in Social Marketing is a scholarly resource bringing together current knowledge and contemporary debate in the field, in addition to exploring areas that are currently underdeveloped in the literature. This book covers arguments relating to numerous hot topics and controversial issues, such as ethics in social marketing; climate change; energy consumption; smoking; healthy eating habits; blood donation; social marketing theory; and the evaluation of social marketing interventions.