International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

How to Disrupt Harmful Corporate Political Activity?; Comment on “Corporate Political Activity: Taxonomies and Model of Corporate Influence on Public Policy”

Document Type : Commentary

Authors
Luc L. Hagenaars 1, 2
Joreintje D. Mackenbach 1, 3, 4
1 Amsterdam Public Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2 Public & Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3 Epidemiology & Data Science, Amsterdam UMC Location Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4 Upstream Team, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
10.34172/ijhpm.9118
Abstract
Ulucanlar and colleagues’ model of corporate political activity by unhealthy commodity industries identifies cross-industry framing and actions that block public health policies. While the model helps to understand policy inertia around the prevention of commercially-driven diseases, it needs expansion into broader theories on policy change and framing to help understand how policy breakthroughs can be achieved. We substantiate this viewpoint by introducing four established policy theories, and by situating Ulucanlar and colleagues’ model within our application of the Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET), a theory that explicitly focuses on disruption of policy inertia. We outline how Ulucanlar and colleagues’ taxonomy can help investigate the strength of an industry’s policy monopoly and identify when and how an industry’s power might be crumbling. We further situate Ulucanlar and colleagues’ model within the concept of metaphorical framing, arguing that more robust grounding of the model in frameworks on morality can effectively challenge framing strategies of unhealthy commodity industries.
Keywords
Commercial Determinants of Health
Health Harming Industry
Policy Process
Public Health
  1. Ulucanlar S, Lauber K, Fabbri A, et al. Corporate political activity: taxonomies and model of corporate influence on public policy. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2023;12:7292. doi:34172/ijhpm.2023.7292
  2. PubMed. Citations of Ulacanlar et al. 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?linkname=pubmed_pubmed_citedin&from_uid=37579378. Accessed March 27, 2025.
  3. Gilmore AB, Fabbri A, Baum F, et al. Defining and conceptualising the commercial determinants of health. Lancet. 2023;401(10383):1194-1213. doi:1016/s0140-6736(23)00013-2
  4. Fazzino TL, Jun D, Chollet-Hinton L, Bjorlie K. US tobacco companies selectively disseminated hyper-palatable foods into the US food system: empirical evidence and current implications. Addiction. 2024;119(1):62-71. doi:1111/add.16332
  5. Shamasunder B, Bero L. Financial ties and conflicts of interest between pharmaceutical and tobacco companies. JAMA. 2002;288(6):738-744. doi:1001/jama.288.6.738
  6. Peretti J. Fat Profits: How the Food Industry Cashed in on Obesity. The Guardian; 2013.
  7. Lacy-Nichols J, Marten R. Power and the commercial determinants of health: ideas for a research agenda. BMJ Glob Health. 2021;6(2):e003850. doi:1136/bmjgh-2020-003850
  8. Bonardi JP, Keim GD. Corporate political strategies for widely salient issues. Acad Manage Rev. 2005;30(3):555-576. doi:5465/amr.2005.17293705
  9. van Schalkwyk MCI, Hawkins B, Cassidy R, Collin J, Gilmore AB, Petticrew M. Learning from tobacco control to tackle gambling industry harms. BMJ. 2025;388:e082866. doi:1136/bmj-2024-082866
  10. Brownell KD, Warner KE. The perils of ignoring history: big tobacco played dirty and millions died. How similar is Big Food? Milbank Q. 2009;87(1):259-294. doi:1111/j.1468-0009.2009.00555.x
  11. Lelieveldt H. Food industry influence in collaborative governance: the case of the Dutch prevention agreement on overweight. Food Policy. 2023;114:102380. doi:1016/j.foodpol.2022.102380
  12. de Leeuw E. Health beyond borders: the future of health promotion. Scand J Public Health. 2025;53(1 Suppl):7-15. doi:1177/14034948241288272
  13. Gómez EJ. Qualitative methods and the commercial determinants of health: insights from the social sciences. Soc Sci Med. 2025;380:118168. doi:1016/j.socscimed.2025.118168
  14. Hagenaars LL, Maani N, Schmidt LA. Is the commercial determinants conversation confined to the health sciences? Potentially, and that's a problem. Global Health. 2024;20(1):3. doi:1186/s12992-023-00989-8
  15. Weible CM, Sabatier PA. Theories of the Policy Process. New York: Routledge; 2018.
  16. Baumgartner FR, Jones BD. Agenda dynamics and policy subsystems. J Polit. 1991;53(4):1044-1074. doi:2307/2131866
  17. Droog NM, Dijkstra CS, van Selm N, Poelman MP, Mackenbach JD. Unveiling viewpoints on national food environment policies in the Dutch newspaper discourse: an interpretative media content analysis. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2024;21(1):80. doi:1186/s12966-024-01625-3
  18. Hagenaars LL, Schmidt LA, Groeniger JO, et al. Why we struggle to make progress in obesity prevention and how we might overcome policy inertia: lessons from the complexity and political sciences. Obes Rev. 2024;25(5):e13705. doi:1111/obr.13705
  19. Schmidt LA, Hagenaars LL. The Ozempic era could shift blame for obesity from individuals to commercial food systems. Issues Sci Technol. 2025;41(3):24-26. doi:58875/teqc7966
  20. Lakoff G. Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2002.
  21. Dorfman L, Wallack L, Woodruff K. More than a message: framing public health advocacy to change corporate practices. Health Educ Behav. 2005;32(3):320-336; discussion 355-362. doi:1177/1090198105275046
International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 14, Issue 1
2025
Pages 1-6

  • Received Date 27 March 2025
  • Revised Date 13 November 2025
  • Accepted Date 18 November 2025
  • First Published Date 01 December 2025
  • Published Date 01 December 2025