4.2 Article

Obesity prevention and related public health advertising versus competing commercial advertising expenditure in Australia

Journal

HEALTH PROMOTION INTERNATIONAL
Volume 37, Issue 6, Pages -

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/heapro/daac155

Keywords

advertising; mass media; sugary drinks; obesity prevention; diet

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study compares the advertising expenditure on public health campaigns with competing commercial categories and finds that the expenditure on public health campaigns is significantly lower. This highlights the need for increased funding and government regulation to rebalance the advertising ratio and support public health.
Mass media campaigns can change attitudes and behaviours to improve population health. However, a key challenge is achieving share of voice in a complex and cluttered media environment. The aim of this study was to compare advertising expenditure on public health campaigns for obesity prevention (and related healthy eating and physical activity campaigns) with competing commercial categories of (a) sugary drinks, (b) artificially sweetened drinks and (c) diet/weight loss products and programmes. These commercial products may either undermine or dilute public health messages by directly contributing to poor health or confusing the public about the best ways to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Monthly estimates of advertising expenditure in Australian media (television, outdoor, cinema, radio, newspapers, magazines and digital) were obtained from Nielsen Media for 2016-18. Eligible public health advertising expenditure for the entire period (total AUD$27M) was vastly outweighed by the commercial categories of sugary drinks (AUD$129M) and diet/weight loss products and services (AUD$122M). Artificially sweetened drinks accounted for an additional AUD$23M of expenditure. These results highlight the need to rebalance the ratio of advertising to support public health in Australia through increased funding for obesity prevention and related campaigns, and critically, through government regulation to limit competing commercial advertising.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.2
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available