ABSTRACT
The modern history of both international development and 'media for development' can be traced to the very same event: United States President Harry S. Truman's Inaugural Address of 20 January 1949. Social marketing began with the premise that if the aim of international development was to bring about attitudinal and behavioural changes through the media, then this could be more effectively achieved if the media messages were better tailored towards their target audiences. The most notorious example of a social marketing based health campaign 'gone wrong' relates to the 'baby food scandal' that engulfed the multinational food and beverage giant Nestle from 1973 onwards. In 1977, a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, Albert Bandura, published what was to become another foundational text for entertainment-education, Social Learning Theory. Social marketeers' use of telenovelas was extended to a wide range of other developing world countries as well, and even to a number of developed nations.
