Subhead:A new ‘experiential marketing’ tender suggests behavioural influence tactics pioneered during COVID are becoming a permanent feature of federal public health policy.#
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Ottawa’s public health bureaucracy appears poised to revive the same behavioural influence tactics that defined the COVID era, this time under the softer branding of “experiential marketing.”
According to a recent tender notice published on the Government of Canada’s procurement website, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) are seeking contractors to deliver “experiential marketing services” in support of future public health campaigns. The scope includes in-person and virtual events, digital outreach, creative development, stakeholder engagement, and detailed performance reporting.
In plain terms, it is a comprehensive communications and engagement strategy designed not merely to inform, but to measure, refine and influence public behaviour.
The stated campaign topics range from healthy living, substance use, food safety and infectious diseases. While those may appear uncontroversial, the initiative is simply a continuation of the nonconsensual behavioural science playbook deployed during COVID-19, when the federal government spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on advertising, messaging and “nudge” strategies intended to engineer compliance with public health directives.
During a “Behavioural Science for Better Health” strategic roundtable, Tam refers to APPs that nudge people toward healthy behaviour & rewards them w badges. Ties this in with Gov looking to regulate social mediahttps://t.co/T1ZAS1uTQi pic.twitter.com/9RjOUADOB0
— Tamara Ugolini 🇨🇦 (@TamaraUgo) June 24, 2022
During the pandemic, PHAC utilized its behavioural insights team(s) and World Health Organization initiatives to deploy these psychological operations. There was no public debate, no parliamentary oversight, no meaningful consent, and no post-hoc accountability for the societal damage left in the wake.
