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This article studies the promotional publications of the Canadian National Parks Branch by examining how the ideal national park landscape was constructed in booklets. The study adds to literature that examines the shifting purposes of national parks and complements recent studies on representations of national park nature, by extending attention to Canadian park brochures, which have received little attention from scholars. Based on an examination of numerous booklets and extensive archival records on promotional publications, the article argues that rather than merely publicising the parks as they were, the Branch carefully constructed the park ideal in its booklets. This portrayal of parks drew from the parks agency's own ideas regarding the purpose of parks and from the perceived wishes of visitors and society, creating expectations of park nature but also responding to them. The park ideal portrayed in booklets transformed over time. The article illustrates how nature's place and meaning was altered in booklets to create and recreate the parks according to the needs of changing times. In examining the National Parks Branch's promotional brochures and their creation process, the article aids our understanding of the place of national parks and nature in society. It demonstrates how the parks agency redefined parks in response to its own evolving views of parks and society's wishes: changing views of what made parks useful altered their representation and the guiding themes of parks promotion shifted from usefulness and recreation to wilderness museum. Promotional literature carried certain connotations - such as national identity connected to natural landscape - throughout the period, rearticulating them to suit different times. As recent discussions on national parks in global perspective have noted, parks are part of transnational circulation of ideas, hence the Canadian experience can also be seen in a broader context.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate three promotional publications produced by the Postum Cereal Company – A Trip Through Postumville (1920), How I Make Postum (1924) and The Wonderful Lunch Boxes (1925) – with the aim of understanding how language and other semiotic resources are used to promote its products as good and healthy choices. Design/methodology/approach The three publications were collected from the HathiTrust Digital Library and University of South Florida Tampa Special Collections. They were subjected to multimodal critical discourse analysis to tease out their subtle characteristics and how a combination of language, image, colour, typography and composition are used to represent certain ideas and values related to health and well-being. Findings The publications subscribe to three distinct genres – “inside the factory”, “friendly spokesperson” and “fictional world” – each of which are aimed at different target audiences. The first seeks to promote Postum as an open and transparent company; the second to promote Postum as a company that cares about its consumers; and the third to promote the health benefits of Postum in a fun and accessible manner. Nonetheless, they are united in their overall objective to link the regular consumption of Postum as essential for good health. Originality/value To date, few studies have been conducted on the Postum Cereal Company, while the limited research conducted on promotional publications has tended to overlook discourses of health and well-being. The three genres outlined in this study, thus, have the potential to foster a reappraisal of promotional publications and showcase their ability to offer new understandings on historical approaches to marketing, particularly the link with health and science.

The presence and influence of complementary and alternative therapies have been increasingly felt in recent years. One reason for this is the active promotion of its services and products through various media channels. The current study focused on information brochures that are placed on pharmacy counters and shelves, and examined how they function as persuasive texts in promoting products and persuading potential users to buy them. The study utilised genre analysis as a method for examining how language and information in texts are systematically selected and structured to perform particular actions and achieve particular communicative purposes. Genre hybridisation as a theoretical concept is drawn on to explain the inter-generic realisation of forms of discourse. One hundred brochures providing information on complementary and alternative health products produced by pharmaceutical companies were collected from pharmacies in Malaysia and analysed for their communicative content in terms of rhetorical moves used to promote the products. This paper describes the generic structure of the print content in the brochures and discusses how it functions to present a favourable view of complementary and alternative health products to the reader. The results show that across all the brochures, regardless of the type of product, a uniform set of moves that is comparable to the sales promotional genre is identified. The findings also reveal that such information brochures on pharmacy counters are in fact persuasive promotional literature. As these brochures are ubiquitous in pharmacies and drugstores in most countries, they are an important force in influencing consumer and patient knowledge, and beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine.

The pan-European VACCELERATE network aims to implement the first transnational harmonized and sustainable vaccine trial Volunteer Registry, being a single entry point for potential volunteers of large-scale vaccine trials across Europe. This work exhibits a set of harmonized vaccine trial-related educational and promotional tools for the general public, designed and disseminated by the pan-European VACCELERATE network. This study primarily aimed to design and develop a standard toolkit to increase positive attitudes and access to trustworthy information for better access and increased recruitment to vaccine trials for the public. More specifically, the produced tools are focused on inclusiveness and equity, and are targeting different population groups, including underserved ones, as potential volunteers for the VACCELERATE Volunteer Registry (older individuals, migrants, children, and adolescents). The promotional and educational material is aligned with the main objectives of the Volunteer Registry to increase public literacy and awareness regarding vaccine-related clinical research or trials and trial participation, including informed consent and legal issues, side effects, and frequently asked questions regarding vaccine trial design. Tools were developed per the aims and principles of the VACCELERATE project, focusing on trial inclusiveness and equity, and are adjusted to local country-wise requirements to improve public health communication. The produced tools are selected based on the cognitive theory, inclusiveness, and equity of differently aged and underrepresented groups, and standardized material from several official trustworthy sources (eg, COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access; the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control; the European Patients' Academy on Therapeutic Innovation; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the World Health Organization). A team of multidisciplinary specialists (infectious diseases, vaccine research, medicine, and education) edited and reviewed the subtitles and scripts of the educational videos, extended brochures, interactive cards, and puzzles. Graphic designers selected the color palette, audio settings, and dubbing for the video story-tales and implemented QR codes. This study presents the first set of harmonized promotional and educational materials and tools (ie, educational cards, educational and promotional videos, extended brochures, flyers, posters, and puzzles) for vaccine clinical research (eg, COVID-19 vaccines). These tools inform the public about possible benefits and disadvantages of trial participation and build confidence among participants about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and the health care system. This material has been translated into several languages and is intended to be freely and easily accessible to facilitate dissemination among VACCELERATE network participant countries and the European and global scientific, industrial, and public community. The produced material could help fill knowledge gaps of health care personnel, providing the appropriate future patient education for vaccine trials, and tackling vaccine hesitancy and parents' concerns for potential participation of children in vaccine trials.

Background Pharmaceutical companies actively advertise their branded antibiotics, which influence their sales at community pharmacies. The major proportion of out of pocket health spending is on medicine; and affordability of antibiotics has always been a crucial issue in most developing countries. This study identified promotional activities adopted by pharmaceutical companies in community pharmacies and medicine shops and the affordability of selected antibiotics to clients with lowest wages in Kavrepalanchok district of Nepal. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among all community pharmacies and medicine shops ( n  = 34) in Dhulikhel and Banepa. Available pharmacists / personnel were interviewed, using a structured questionnaire, on the characteristics of the pharmacies, promotional activities, and sales and prices of antibiotics used to treat acute upper respiratory tract infections. This study looked at the association of promotional activities (financial bonus, free samples, and books/brochure/gifts) with the type of antibiotics. Further, affordability was assessed of the most popular antibiotics by comparing the total treatment cost against the lowest wage for unskilled workers in Nepal. Results Financial bonus, free samples, and brochures were the most popular promotional activities. It is also noticed that antibiotics which are top selling were those with a high number of promotional activities. Amoxicillin, azithromycin and amoxicillin+clavulanate had 42, 29 and 17 promotional activities respectively. Irrespective of the prices of antibiotics, almost all of the most popular antibiotics for acute upper respiratory infections were unaffordable for unskilled workers costing them more than a day’s wage. Conclusions Upper respiratory tract antibiotics are widely promoted at community pharmacies. The treatment cost of antibiotics is unaffordable for unskilled workers in Nepal irrespective of the type and unit cost of antibiotics.

Originality/value: This research is expected to provide a different pattern as a means of promotion and marketing, which can facilitate the promotion and marketing of products, especially for The Royal Apartments can be more competitive in the property business.

This study is a cross-cultural examination of interactivity on U.S., U.K., Japanese, and South Korean corporate Web sites. Each Web site was content-analyzed for use of various interactivity functions. Using cultural difference criteria of high versus low context, power distance, and individualism-collectivism, this study compares three dimensions of interactivity on the Web sites of each country's top 50 advertisers. Twenty-five interactivity functions/indicators, classified into three interactivity dimensions, were used in the final data analysis to test three research hypotheses. Our findings indicate that Western Web sites tend to emphasize consumer-message (H1) and consumer-marketer interactivity (H2), whereas Eastern Web sites highlight consumer-consumer interactivity (H3). Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This paper examines the advertising themes and rhetoric that have been assembled in the marketing of the Greater Cairo Region's (GCR) newly built gated communities. We demonstrate how place-marketing strategies, in this case, selling the Egyptian dream home, draws upon specific landscape offerings and values. It shows how aspects of globalization interact with processes of urbanization in the GCR to create new landscapes of housing consumption. The globalization of mass media has influenced consumption preferences and brought new consumption choices to the GCR's residents. This study concludes that the demand for gated communities in the GCR, in large part, has been created by developers who foster an image of these areas as symbols of 'modernism' and Western lifestyles. Underlying these sales efforts is the common assumption held by developers, potential buyers and segments of the larger society that the lifestyles of Western urbanization should naturally emerge as the result of economic development.