Social marketing: The state of play and brokering the way forward [Editorial]

Contemporary societies around the world face a number of what have been termed ‘wicked problems’ (Churchman, 1967 ; Rittel & Webber, 1973). These issues include but are not restricted to health inequalities (Petticrew et al., 2009); economic, social and political inequalities (Dubrow, 2014 ; Piketty, 2014 ; Sernau, 2013 ; Stiglitz, 2012); gender inequality (Lorber, 2011); climate change and environmental degradation (Levin, Cashore, Bernstein, & Auld, 2012); over population (Cohen, 1996); overconsumption (see http://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/); imposing religiosity (Hitchins, 2007); religious intolerance (Nussbaum, 2012); terrorism (Burleigh, 2008); migration, refugees and asylum seekers (Aspinall & Watters, 2010); obesity (PLOS Medicine Editors, 2013); alcohol-related harm (Babor et al., 2010); tobacco-related harm (Eriksen, Mackay, Schluger, Gomeshtapeh, & Drope, 2015); problem gambling (Korn, Gibbins, & Azmier, 2003); and HIV and AIDS (Engel, 2006)...