Walk into an A&E in any British city on a Friday or Saturday night, and you will most likely be surrounded by drunken chaos, caused by modern day binge drinking. With the cost of treating alcohol related problems up to £3.5bn a year, according to the first annual report from the UK’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies, this poses the ultimate question – Is binge drinking taking over Britain?

A new law has come into force in France this month making it compulsory for drivers to carry a breathalyser kit in their vehicles or risk an on-the-spot fine. It is the latest move by the French government to try and bring down the number of road deaths caused by drinking alcohol and driving. In our latest column we ask, will this change behaviour or is it simply a cost cutting measure for French police and a boost for business?

Body image has come up again in the news this week.  According to the latest parliamentary report published on Wednesday, girls as young as five now routinely worry about their weight and appearance while more than half the entire UK population is grappling with mental and physical problems relating to negative body image.

As a change organisation that utilises the power of research and insight to design behavioural change programmes to bring about social change we sat and pondered about how we would try to move people from a negative mind set to a positive one – bearing in mind that we ourselves struggle with a negative body image at times. We looked back over the research we had conducted with over 500 families in Corby, Northamptonshire (which focused on weight and exercise) and a poor body image stood out like a sore thumb – with many mum’s telling us that they couldn’t – and wouldn’t go to the gym or take part in physical activity because they hated the way they looked or they didn’t have the right ‘kit’.

With the governments release of their consultation findings on the 16^th April 2012, there has been much debate about the importance of branding and the effects standardisation could have.

The removal of all branding from cigarette packaging would mean that manufacturers will only be permitted to print their brand name in a mandated size, font and place on the pack. This will be in addition to the health warnings and any other legally mandatory information such as toxic constituents and tax-paid stamps.

The main arguments in favour of standardised packaging are:

An advert showing a young girl dying on a hospital trolley is to be aired five nights a week on ITV in the East Midlands this month in a bid to reduce the number of people who turn up to A&E with minor complaints.

The ad is part of a campaign being run by NHS Leicester and NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland who want to show the consequences of wasting doctors time if you turn up with minor health issues such as scratches and sprains. However, according to the Daily Mail, the advert has been criticised by parents who describe the advert as ‘gratuitous’ and ‘sick’.  So, with all the hype usually generated when a new ad campaign launches we ask: do hard hitting ads work?

The government has declared its “responsibility deal” with big business a success in “helping people live healthier lives”. In a speech yesterday at the Royal Society of Public Health, Andrew Lansley claimed the deal has led to ‘real changes for everyone’.  But nearly a year after it’s launch, we ask; has the responsibility deal really benefited the nation? 

There is little doubt that digital and mobile marketing have rocked 2011 and changed the way we communicate. So what now for 2012? In this article we give you our predictions for 2012 and a set of ‘must do’ resolutions for marketers.

Co-creation is about collaboration. It’s about working together to solve problems and uniting to find solutions. But how can co-creation be done successfully and why does it matter?