In 2025, as a new administration that openly favored corporate interests took power, we watched public health, environmental justice, and international development take hit after hit. Budgets for vital programs vanished, colleagues were laid off, and systemic issues persisted. Amid the uncertainty, along with immense amounts of existential dread, we commiserated with one another, cringing (and often laughing) through the news. While the social sector stretched to a breaking point, the corporate and profit-driven forces shaping our health and environment became more visible and pressing than ever.
Along with this urgency, we also recognized a historically overlooked gap in the way the public health, non-profit, and social change sectors work on issues they care about, whether that’s chronic disease, wealth inequality, or climate change. While much of the programming in these spaces mitigates negative impacts of pervasive issues, it less often identifies and addresses their fundamental commercial root causes. When we do see people talk about commercial determinants, it is often dry and filled with academic jargon.
We want to make the commercial determinants framework (the commercial playbook as we often refer to it) more accessible and engaging. We believe that understanding the system is the first step toward changing it. We’re here to make that understanding a little clearer (and a lot more interesting).
While in the Commercially Determined newsletter and in our consulting work with changemaking organizations we call out toxic commercial practices, our aim is not to point fingers at people working in the corporate world. Our focus is on failing systems that incentivize and normalize harmful activities. Ultimately, our goal is to help public health practitioners and social change advocates understand these forces and enable them to confront commercial determinants thoughtfully, while remembering it is okay, and actually necessary, to laugh at the absurdity of the status quo.
Ready to dig in on naming the commercially determined elephant in the room in your work? Contact us to request a consultation, a talk, or a support strategy to address commercial determinants in your space. We tailor all our speaking and facilitation work to groups’ goals and areas of interest. We ensure maximum relevance to catalyze your ability to address commercial determinants.