EXPRESS: We the People: Public Advocacy for Public Policy

This research is designed to propel the study of public advocacy for public policy within the Transformative Consumer Research and marketing disciplines. We define public advocacy as a systematic process of persuasion to gain enduring public support for an idea, belief, course of action, law, or policy. In this research, we sought out and partnered with experienced experts and organizational leaders doing public advocacy work across a variety of functional areas (e.g., grassroots organizing, social movements, lobbying, media interventions to shift cultural norms) and diverse topics (e.g., hunger, economic justice, pay equity, workers’ rights, voting rights, etc.) We build on insights drawn from their experiences and academic research related to advocacy to innovate a conceptual framework for public advocacy. We call on researchers to investigate and advance knowledge about public advocacy and its impact on public policy, individual and community well-being, and transformative social change.