Advertising Claims Research Articles

Online advertising and marketing claims by providers of proton beam therapy: are they guideline-based?

BackgroundCancer patients frequently search the Internet for treatment options, and hospital websites are seen as reliable sources of knowledge. Guidelines support the use of proton radiotherapy in specific disease sites or on clinical trials. This study aims to evaluate direct-to-consumer advertising content and claims made by proton therapy centre (PTC) websites worldwide.MethodsOperational PTC websites in English were identified through the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group website. Data abstraction of website content was performed independently by two investigators. Eight international guidelines were consulted to determine guideline-based indications for proton radiotherapy. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the characteristics of PTC websites that indicated proton radiotherapy offered greater disease control or cure rates.ResultsForty-eight PTCs with 46 English websites were identified. 60·9% of PTC websites claimed proton therapy provided improved disease control or cure. U.S. websites listed more indications than international websites (15·5 ± 5·4 vs. 10·4 ± 5·8, p = 0·004). The most common disease sites advertised were prostate (87·0%), head and neck (87·0%) and pediatrics (82·6%), all of which were indicated in least one international guideline. Several disease sites advertised were not present in any consensus guidelines, including pancreatobiliary (52·2%), breast (50·0%), and esophageal (43·5%) cancers. Multivariate analysis found increasing number of disease sites and claiming their centre was a local or regional leader in proton radiotherapy was associated with indicating proton radiotherapy offers greater disease control or cure.ConclusionsInformation from PTC websites often differs from recommendations found in international consensus guidelines. As online marketing information may have significant influence on patient decision-making, alignment of such information with accepted guidelines and consensus opinion should be adopted by PTC providers.

Editorial

Editorial Christina Larocco A study of food and foodways in Pennsylvania history—the subject of this issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography—would hardly be complete without mentioning Wawa. In the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Balch Institute Ethnic Images in Advertising collection, I came across a curious document: an advertisement for employment with the iconic market, circa 1984–90. Featuring drawings of four figures from different backgrounds and at different stages in their lives—an African American man in a button-down shirt, sweater, and slacks holding a football; a white mother and her infant; a white surfer dude in shorts and sunglasses; and an energetic, mustachioed older white man—the advertisement touts the benefits of working for Wawa.1 Employees at Wawa, the advertisement claims, will experience unmatched autonomy, making decisions about how the store is run from day one. Wawa stores, moreover, offer their employees convenience, flexibility, and opportunities for advancement. And at whom are these opportunities aimed? "People just like you—earning extra money for those added college expenses, supplementing a family income or simply making [End Page 233] the most out of spare time."2 The designers of this advertisement assumed that people did not need these jobs to live on. The reality of food service workers in the United States was, and is, very different. Of the 1.8 million Americans who earned at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in 2017, many are adults, and many have children. In a 2015 study, the Economic Policy Institute concluded that of those who would be affected by a higher minimum wage, 89 percent were twenty or older, and 27.7 percent were parents (23.6 percent in Pennsylvania). Nationwide, two-thirds of minimum-wage workers are women. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia mandate a higher minimum wage than does the federal government; Pennsylvania is not one of them.3 As economists debate the wisdom of raising the minimum wage, often missing from the conversation is the fact that, at the behest of the restaurant industry, many states allow an alternative minimum wage for tipped workers; in Pennsylvania it is $2.83. In theory tips make up the difference, but poverty rates among tipped workers are much higher than among non-tipped workers. Studies also show that the tipped minimum wage perpetuates income disparities based on race and gender—unsurprising, given that tipping is rooted in the post-emancipation reluctance to pay wages to freedpeople.4 In the meantime, the Fair Workweek campaign is targeting the "just-intime" scheduling practices adopted by food and retail industries. Though employees receive their schedules a few days in advance, they are often expected to stay on call, never knowing when or how much they will work [End Page 234] in a given week. The flexibility celebrated in the Wawa advertisement, it seems, is often only for employers.5 As Danya Pilgrim reminds us in this issue, "too often, foodways scholars have not considered service within the operation of eating culture, as though food magically appears at the table with no intermediary link between the kitchen and the dining room." The articles in this issue uncover a number of connections, not only from kitchen to dining room but also from food and foodways to imperialism, international labor and human rights, and abolitionism, to name a few. I thank my guest editors, William Woys Weaver and Psyche Williams-Forson, for their help in selecting such fine scholarship. [End Page 235] Footnotes 1. Advertisement for employment, Wawa Food Markets, n.d. [circa 1984–90], box 1, folder 20, Balch Institute Ethnic Images in Advertising collection (Collection 3238), Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, available online at https://digitallibrary.hsp.org/index.php/Detail/objects/10106. 2. Advertisement for employment, HSP. 3. Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor, "Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2017," BLS Reports, Mar. 2018, https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm; Economic Policy Institute, "It's Time to Raise the Minimum Wage," Apr. 23, 2015, https://www.epi.org/files/2015/fact-sheet-minimum-wage.pdf; Economic Policy Institute, "State Tables...

Evaluation of modified risk claim advertising formats for Camel Snus.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulatory authority for modified risk tobacco product advertising claims. To guide future regulatory efforts, we investigated how variations in modified risk claim advertisements influence consumer perceptions of product risk claims for Camel Snus. Young people and adults (15-65), including current, never, and former smokers, were randomised to view one of five Camel Snus print advertisements as part of a web-based survey. Four of the advertisements presented information related to nitrosamine content of snus using four formats: (1) text, (2) a bar chart, (3) a text/testimonial and (4) a bar chart/testimonial. The fifth format, used as a control, was a current advertisement for Camel Snus without the explicit claims made about nitrosamine content. After viewing advertisements for all products, participants were asked which product they would be most interested in trying. Participants exposed to advertisements that contained an explicit reduced risk message agreed the advertising claim for that product posed fewer health risks than cigarettes. However, advertisements containing the reduced risk messages were also viewed as containing less truthful information and respondents were more sceptical of the information presented. Advertisement claim format was not associated with selecting snus over the other tobacco products, nor was it associated with purchase intentions. The results of this research indicate that consumers respond to reduced risk messages, though perhaps not in the direct way anticipated. We found no significant differences by advertisement format (numerical, graphical, testimonial).

Snake Oil

Snake oil is dangerous only by way of the claims that are made about its healing powers. It is a speech problem, and its remedy involves speech restrictions. But First Amendment doctrine has struggled to find equilibrium in the balance between free speech and the reduction of junk science. Regulation requires the government to take an authoritative position about which factual claims are “true” and “false,” which is anathema to open inquiry. As a result, free speech jurisprudence overprotects factual claims made in public discourse out of respect for any remote possibility that the scientific consensus might be wrong but has given wide latitude to state actors to regulate all but the most accepted and well supported claims in advertising. This Article shows that the interests in speech and safety alike would be better served by switching from the truth-oriented set of rules that apply today to a risk orientation. While risk and falsity are obviously related, they are not substitutes. The transition to a risk analysis would better match longstanding First Amendment traditions that permit state interests in avoiding harm to outweigh speech interests while maintaining epistemic modesty. The practical effect of this shift would be to permit more regulation in public discourse and less in commercial speech.

Environmental claims in Indian print advertising: an empirical study and policy recommendation

PurposeEnvironmental claims in advertising (green ads) provide competitive advantage to firms. This study aims to understand what kinds of environmental claims advertisers make in a developing nation like India. Further, implications for policymakers and advertisers are discussed.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of 279 green print advertisements was conducted using a comprehensive list of claim categories identified from the advertising literature. These categories included advertiser profile; ad promotions – type, sector, appeal; claim – nature, type, focus, validity, emphasis; executional elements – illustration setting, presenter, format/structure and environmental issue, identified from past studies and practitioner interviews.FindingsThe findings suggest that majority of the advertisers using green ads are manufacturers. Consumer durables, real estate and power sector together constitute one-third of the total green ads. Further, most of the green ads are aimed at influencing consumer behaviour. Though most of the ads contain strong emphasis on environmental attributes, they are ambiguous. A large proportion of claims are credence in nature and lack product identification through environmental certifications. This study also identifies areas of concern including interpretation of the term green, use of multiple certifications, greenwashing and advertisers showing environmental responsiveness through event-based green advertising. Policy recommendations are made based on green advertising regulations governing them across developed and other developing countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe content analysis of the green advertisements in this study was limited to newspaper advertisements within the print media. Future studies may use advertisements from different media types, such as the internet ads and television commercials, to examine the effect of media type on the nature of green advertisements. It would also be interesting to examine the role of regulations as a moderator, influencing the claims made in green advertisements.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide a comprehensive overview of the nature of green advertisements in India. Marketers may use these insights to design effective green advertising strategies.Originality/valueMost of the extant literature has examined environmental claims in the context of developed nations, where regulations are well established. Very few studies have examined this issue in the context of developing countries. In addition, most of the previous studies have focused on specific issues like greenwashing, appeals and execution elements. The present study contributes to green advertising by examining environmental claims in case of a developing nation like India using a comprehensive list of claim categories. This study also identifies areas of concern and suggests recommendations for policymakers and advertisers.

Physician response to contextualized price-comparison claims in prescription drug advertising

ABSTRACTPhysician-targeted prescription drug advertisements sometimes include price comparisons between products that may misleadingly imply equivalence of efficacy and safety or misrepresent true savings, suggesting the potential utility of a context statement to explain what the claims do and do not mean.We manipulated the presence of a price claim and a context statement in a 1 × 3 (control condition, price-comparison-only, price-comparison-plus-context) between-subjects design. Physicians (N = 1438), randomly assigned to condition, viewed the prescription drug ad and answered a brief survey. Primary outcome measures included recognition, perceived importance, and impact of the price-comparison claim, and recognition, understanding, and effectiveness of the context statement.The majority of physicians accurately recognized the price claim (76.0%) but far fewer accurately recognized the associated context statement (44.9%). The context statement did not affect evaluations of the price-comparison claim importance or accuracy and did not have the intended effects on perceptions of uncertainty about drug interchangeability. Physicians may be affected by price-comparison claims in thinking that the drug has risks that are relatively less severe. Price-comparison claims also affected intentions to look for information about the drug.Adding a realistic context statement to a physician-targeted prescription drug ad did not generate sufficient awareness of claim caveats to differentiate price-comparison response of those exposed to the context statement from those who were not.

Effects of skepticism about corporate social responsibility advertising on consumer attitude

We adopted a 2 × 2 mixed experimental design to control for form of corporate social responsibility (CSR), advertising message claims (single message vs. multiple message), and levels of advertising skepticism (high vs. low), to elucidate how these influence advertising preferences and advertising credibility. On the basis of data collected from 320 participants (152 men and 168 women), 4 significant findings were obtained: (a) The form of message claims in CSR advertisements affects advertising preference and advertising credibility, (b) levels of advertising skepticism affect advertising preference and advertising credibility, (c) consumers with high advertising skepticism exhibit advertising skepticism toward CSR advertisements with single-message claims, (d) consumers with low advertising skepticism exhibit preference for CSR advertisements with multiple-message claims. Our findings suggest that enterprises should plan advertisement content carefully when promoting their CSR activities because exaggerated or understated content triggers doubt in consumers' minds.

An examination of structure-function claims in dietary supplement advertising in the U.S.: 2003-2009.

Dietary supplement advertising cannot claim a causal link between the product and the treatment, prevention, or cure of a disease unless manufacturers seek approval from the FDA for a health claim. Manufacturers can make structure-function (S-F) claims without FDA approval linking a supplement to a body function or system using words such as "may help" or "promotes." These S-F claims are examined in this study in order to determine whether they mimic health claims for which the FDA requires stricter scientific evidence. Data include S-F claims in supplement advertisements (N=6179) appearing in US nationally circulated magazines (N=137) from 2003 to 2009. All advertisements were comprehensively coded for S-F claims, seals of approval, and other claims of guarantee. S-F claims associate supplements with a wide variety of health conditions, many of which are serious diseases and/or ailments. A significant number of the specific verbs used in these S-F claims are indicative of disease treatment/cure effects, thereby possibly mimicking health claims to the average consumer. The strength of the clinical associations made are largely unsubstantiated in the medical literature. Claims that a product is "scientifically proven" or "guaranteed" were largely unsubstantiated by clinical literature. Ads carrying externally validating seals of approval were highly prevalent. S-F claims that strongly mimic FDA-prohibited health claims are likely to create confusion in interpretation and possible public health concerns are discussed.

Weasel claims in advertisements in English and Serbian

Weasel claims in advertisements in English and Serbian

Quality of claims and references found in Australian pharmacy journal advertisements.

To evaluate the quality of pharmaceutical advertisement claims and supporting references in Australian pharmacy journals that target community pharmacists. All full-page advertisements for a medicinal product, found in two Australian pharmacy journals from the year 2012 to 2015 were included. Advertisement claims and references were evaluated by claim type (unambiguous to immeasurable) and level of evidence (strong to irrelevant) in supporting references. Two hundred and ninety distinct advertisements and 598 claims were identified, with a median of 2 claims per advertisement. Twenty-seven percent of claims were unambiguous, 40% were vague, 16% were emotive/immeasurable and 17% were non-clinical or other marketing claims. Half of all claims were referenced. Although 68% of unambiguous claims were referenced, 63% of those were supported by studies that were funded directly or indirectly by pharmaceutical companies. Only 13% of claims were supported with strong or moderate independent evidence. Pharmaceutical advertisements continue to present vague and emotive claims with little independent supporting evidence. Pharmacists need to be aware of these limitations when providing patient care. Increased awareness of this issue among pharmaceutical companies, Australian pharmaceutical journal publishers, regulators and pharmacists will assist in promoting optimised healthcare outcomes for the Australian public.

Taste and nutrition: the uses and effectiveness of different advertising claims in women's magazine food advertisements

A multi-method study was conducted to examine different advertising claims in current food advertising and to determine the effectiveness of different advertising claims on females’ evaluative judgments of food advertisements. Content analysis results of 678 women's magazine food ads indicated functional food ads appeared to adopt nutrition appeals without taste claims and a combined use of nutrition appeals and taste claims, whereas hedonic food ads tended to use taste claims without nutrition appeals. Nevertheless, these food advertising practices were called into question by the results of two experiments, showing the combined use of nutrition appeals and taste claims was the most effective strategy for both hedonic and functional foods. However, for hedonic foods, advertisers need to include more congruent than extremely incongruent claims. Implications for food advertisers and policy-makers were discussed.

Health and nutrition content claims on websites advertising infant formula available in Australia: A content analysis.

The use of health and nutrition content claims in infant formula advertising is restricted by many governments in response to WHO policies and WHA resolutions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether such prohibited claims could be observed in Australian websites that advertise infant formula products. A comprehensive internet search was conducted to identify websites that advertise infant formula available for purchase in Australia. Content analysis was used to identify prohibited claims. The coding frame was closely aligned with the provisions of the Australian and New Zealand Food Standard Code, which prohibits these claims. The outcome measures were the presence of health claims, nutrition content claims, or references to the nutritional content of human milk. Web pages advertising 25 unique infant formula products available for purchase in Australia were identified. Every advertisement (100%) contained at least one health claim. Eighteen (72%) also contained at least one nutrition content claim. Three web pages (12%) advertising brands associated with infant formula products referenced the nutritional content of human milk. All of these claims appear in spite of national regulations prohibiting them indicating a failure of monitoring and/or enforcement. Where countries have enacted instruments to prohibit health and other claims in infant formula advertising, the marketing of infant formula must be actively monitored to be effective.

Content analysis of comparative claims in drug advertisements

Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe the trends and practices of comparative prescription drug advertising by examining the types of comparative claims made in direct-to-consumer (DTC) and direct-to-physician (DTP) print advertisements. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a content analysis of 54 DTC and DTP print prescription drug advertisements (published between 1997 and 2014) with comparative claims. Findings Efficacy-based comparisons appeared in 64 per cent of advertisements, and attribute-based comparisons appeared in 37 per cent of advertisements. Most advertisements made direct (vs indirect) references to competitors (85 per cent), compared the advertised drug to a single (vs multiple) competitor (78 per cent), focused exclusively on one type of comparison claim (i.e. efficacy-, risk- or attribute-based) (70 per cent) and did not contain data-driven visual aids (82 per cent). Some differences between DTC and DTP advertisements emerged. More DTP than DTC advertisements included data-driven visual aids (82 per cent vs 0 per cent, respectively), included numerical data (88 per cent vs 53 per cent) and conveyed statistical significance (52 per cent vs 12 per cent). Research limitations/implications The study used a convenience sample rather than a random sample of advertisements; thus, the findings might not be generalizable to all pharmaceutical DTC and DTP advertisements. Examining the tactics that advertisers use to educate and influence consumers and physicians sets the foundation for future studies that examine the effects of their exposure to comparative claims. Suggestions for future research are discussed. Originality/value This study is the first to examine and statistically compare the comparative advertising tactics used in both consumer and physician prescription drug advertisements.

A Content Analysis of Green Advertising Claims in Korea

This research examined the use of green advertising claims in Korean print advertisements. A content analysis was done for 18,671 environmental claims made in Korean advertising from 2013 to 2015. Each advertisement was coded according to five categories: green advertising, advertising type, green claim type, advertiser type, and product type. During this period, the study showed that only 0.8% of Korean print advertisements used environmental appeals. Green ad appeals in Korean advertisements were used to promote image, product quality, and public, in that order. The results of the study suggest that even though green issues are increasingly important in Korean society, there has been a lack of green advertising claims in Korean print advertisements. The findings of this research offered researchers a unique view of this field and some directions for future study in the field of green advertising appeals in print advertisements.

The Effect of Comparatively-Framed versus Similarity-Framed E-Cigarette and Snus Print Ads on Young Adults' Ad and Product Perceptions.

This study examined the effects of comparative-framing [C-F; ads highlighting differences between the advertised product and conventional cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products] versus similarity-framing (S-F; ads highlighting congruence with conventional cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products) in e-cigarette and snus ads on young adult smokers' and non-smokers' ad- and product-related perceptions. One thousand fifty one (1,051) young adults (18-24 years; 76% women; 50% smokers) from existing consumer panels were recruited in a within-subjects quasi-experiment. Each participant viewed 4 online advertisements, varied by tobacco product type (e-cigarette or snus) and ad framing (C-F or S-F). The dependent measures for this study were ad-related (ad perceptions, ad credibility) and product-related perceptions (absolute and comparative risk perceptions, product appeal, and product use intentions). Former and current smokers rated C-F ads as more persuasive than S-F ads, as evidenced by favorable ad perceptions and high product use intentions. Former and current smokers also rated e-cigarette ads with more favorable ad perceptions, low absolute and comparative risk perceptions, high product appeal, and high product use intentions as compared to snus ads. However, the effect sizes of the significant differences are less than.2, indicating small magnitude of difference between the study variables. Unless FDA regulates e-cig and snus advertising, there is a potential of decreasing risk perceptions and increasing use of e-cigs among young adults. Further research on implicit/explicit comparative claims in e-cigarettes and snus advertisements that encourage risk misperceptions is recommended.

Are Advertisement Claims in Anaesthetic Journals based on High-Quality Evidence?

Background: Many medical journals contain advertisements for pharmaceuticals products. While the WHO demands that claims in pharmaceutical advertisements should be based on scientific evidence, past investigations demonstrated that some advertisements fail to fulfill these demands. As there is currently no investigation dealing with advertisements in anaesthetic journals, we aimed to find out whether claims in these journals are accompanied by references to external evidence, and whether these claims are supported by the evidence cited. Methods: We analysed all drug advertisements placed in four international and two German language anaesthetic journals published in the years 2000, 2004 and 2008, regarding presentation and occurrence of claims. For all claim-citing references to external evidence we tried to obtain these references, ranked their grade of evidence, and verified whether the claim was actually supported by evidence given. The analysis was primarily descriptive. Results: We found 5453 advertisements for 1063 pharmaceuticals. The advertisements contained 3797 marketing claims and 2489 references, of which 64% referred to articles published in a journal listed in MEDLINE. In total, 17% of all claims were supported by a high-quality study or guideline. This portion rose from 9% in 2000, up to 37% in 2008. Overall, 49% of the claims were not accompanied by a reference to an external proof, and 6% referenced a study which did not support the claim. Conclusions: These results imply that drug advertisements in anaesthetic journals are not yet sufficiently supported by highquality studies, and medical professionals therefore need to critically appraise the claims in advertisements.

Misleading advertising: a case study of a marketer’s ‘prescribed by doctors’ slogan

Marketers of over-the-counter medication, nutraceuticals and products promoted as slimming aids often make use of medical endorsement to advertise their products. Consumers generally regard testimony from a medical doctor as credible and trustworthy due to the ethical standards associated with and expected from the medical profession. A reasonable consumer believes and expects that products endorsed by the medical profession are effective and safe to use. It is because of this trust in medical doctors that the Consumer Protection Act, the National Health Act, and regulations governing labelling prohibit marketers from claiming medical endorsement. Marketers who do claim such endorsement mislead consumers successfully and exploit their credulity. Advertising regulatory bodies act as gatekeepers against misleading commercial communication and normally rule against marketers who cannot substantiate their advertising claims. This article presents a case study where the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASASA), following a consumer complaint, ruled in favour of an advertiser who uses a slogan claiming medical endorsement, despite the fact that the marketing material violates existing Acts as well as the ethical code of the medical profession. This article explains why the ASASA ruling is flawed, and suggests amendments to its advertising code.

The Role of Attachment Style in Shaping Consumer Preferences for Products Shown in Advertisements that Depict Consensus Claims

Consensus claims are often depicted in advertisements. The present research adopts an attachment theory (Bowlby 1969) perspective to advance new insights into the effect of consensus claims in advertisements on consumers' purchase likelihood. Results of five studies demonstrate how the effectiveness of consensus claims in ads is circumscribed to specific individuals and that interpersonal attachment style is a key moderator. Specifically, among individuals with secure attachment styles, depicting consensus claims in ads enhances consumers' intentions to purchase the advertised product, but among individuals with anxious attachment styles, consensus claims are a less effective advertising tactic as they result in lower intentions to purchase the advertised product.

Developing Rational Standards for an Advertising Substantiation Policy

American annual consumer expenditures of nearly two trillion dollars involve approximately sixty-four percent of the country's Gross National Product. A substantial portion of those consumer purchases result in some sort of dissatisfaction. The term 'consumer dissatisfaction’ represents a large continuum of feelings ranging from mild disappointment to all consuming rage. Consumer dissatisfaction is a serious societal problem for a variety of reasons. It indicates a misallocation of scarce resources. It can be a significant factor in producing the perception that the economic and political institutions are unfair, ineffective, or unresponsive. That perception can have wide ranging political ramifications. Finally, it may be an indication of genuine political and economic unfairness.Consumer dissatisfaction is often caused by advertising or other marketing practices that create unrealistic expectations on the part of consumers regarding the properties or effectiveness of products or services. Advertising, both true and untrue, plays a significant role in determining how consumer dollars are spent. Approximately seventy-billion dollars are spent annually on advertising. Therefore, the part that advertising plays in consumer misapprehension regarding the properties or effectiveness of products deserves our attention.A number of governmental institutions and substantive legal doctrines have been established to resolve consumer disputes and to prevent consumer dissatisfaction. The Federal Trade Commission (Commission) often is considered the prime federal agency protecting consumers from false advertising. The Commission administers a number of statutes which seek to protect consumers in the market-place; the most inclusive of those laws is Section Five of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) which prohibits ‘unfair and deceptive acts and practices.’ This language has been used for eighty-four years as the basis of the Commission's jurisdiction to regulate advertising. The Commission has regulated advertising by enacting a variety of Trade Regulation Rules and by ordering various advertisers to ‘cease and desist’ advertising campaigns that the Commission determines are deceptive.Traditionally, identification of an advertisement as deceptive involved a determination that the advertiser was making false claims about the nature of the product. The Commission has employed another approach to the concept of deception. An advertiser violates the FTCA by making claims about a product when the advertiser does not have a reasonable basis to believe the claim, i.e., the advertiser lacks sufficient substantiation for the claim. This ‘reasonable basis doctrine’ forms the root of what is known as the Commission's advertising substantiation program. That program involves (or has involved) collecting and disseminating to the public the substantiation for particular advertising claims, as well as penalizing advertisers who make claims without a sufficient substantiation for those claims.The advertising substantiation program often is recognized as a significant aspect of the Commission's consumer protection efforts. Nearly all complaints, decisions, and consent orders involving deceptive advertising at least partly are based on the doctrine that advertisers should have substantiation for claims. The advertising substantiation program was the subject of one of the two major policy statements regarding consumer protection that have been issued by the Commission during the Reagan administration.A number of issues regarding the application of the substantiation requirement remain unresolved. Those issues involve: identifying the standard for determining the appropriate level of substantiation by advertisers, deciding whether substantiation developed after a claim is made should be considered, deciding whether the Commission should proceed by rule or adjudication in establishing the substantiation requirement, and deciding whether the substantiation materials should be available to the public. After a brief history of the substantiation requirement, this article will establish a theoretical basis for that requirement. That basis will be used to resolve the issues which have arisen.

Evaluation of dietary supplement advertisements in popular Spanish, Chinese, and Korean media outlets: a cross sectional study

The prevalence of dietary supplement (DS) advertisements in non-English daily periodicals, weekly periodicals, and television in the United States is unknown. Additionally, it is unclear if the claims presented in these advertisements are validated. This study aims to compare the prevalence of DS advertisements and percent of validated claims in DS advertisements among popular English and non-English daily periodicals, weekly periodicals, and television. This is a cross-sectional study involving daily periodical, weekly periodical, and television advertisements for DS in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean in San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles Area, California, USA. Study outcomes are percent prevalence of DS advertisements, percent of claims in DS advertisements that made therapeutic claims, and percent of validated claims in DS advertisements. Claims in DS advertisements were validated by using the effectiveness rating of the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database and/or identifying a supporting randomized controlled trial (RCT). The prevalence of DS advertisements across all three media outlets were 0 % in English, 0 % in Spanish, 14.8 % in Chinese, and 11.4 % in Korean. Across all three media outlets, DS advertisements were significantly more prevalent in both Asian languages than in English (p < 0.001). None of the products identified in English media outlets made a therapeutic claim whereas 18.6 % of products identified in non-English media outlets did. None of the claims in DS advertisements had an effective rating. Only one product identified in English media outlets had supporting data from an RCT. Our data suggest that DS advertisements are more common in Asian language media outlets than in English and Spanish language media outlets. Given the lack of validated claims in DS advertisements, rigorous evaluations of their claims should be carried out to guide and protect consumers.