Endorsers’ presence in regulation and endorsements in dietary supplements’ advertising on Spanish radio

Clara Muela-Molina, Salvador Perelló-Oliver and Ana García-Arranz

Health Policy, 2020, vol. 124, issue 8, 902-908

Abstract: Healthy lifestyles provide a market niche for products offering health benefits in a context where consumers have a misconception of the characteristics and functions of dietary supplements (DS). Due to an increase of endorsers’ advertising persuasion, their presence is limited and, in some cases, forbidden. The main objective of this work is to analyse the presence of endorsers in DS advertising on Spanish radio in order to verify its compliance with current legislation and determine the endorsements’ characteristics. Specifically, this paper analyses the quantity, frequency, placement and endorsement type of DS spots on full-service radio stations. Content analysis of the totality of radio spots broadcast throughout the year 2017 is conducted, deriving a corpus of 165 different radio spots belonging to the product category of dietary supplements, broadcast a total of 10,566 times. The results show that 40% of radio spots use endorsers not allowed by law, such as health care professionals, typical consumers and celebrities. The latter have an unusually high presence in DS radio advertising, with one out of four spots featuring celebrities or opinion leaders, including journalists and radio hosts as well as a frequent use of testimonial endorsements. Implications for health and public policy are made.

Keywords: Advertising endorsers; Health policy; Radio advertising; Regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:124:y:2020:i:8:p:902-908

DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.05.003

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