Chapter 4. Advertising and Other Marketing

Consumers should be aware that the health marketplace is flooded with misleading messages. Some marketers use scare tactics to promote their wares. Some attempt to exploit people's common hopes and fears. Many advertisers use puffery, weasel words, half-truths, or visual imagery to misrepresent their products. Except for chiropractors, most health professionals who advertise tend to represent their services accurately. Ads by professional societies, hospitals, and prescription drug manufacturers also tend to be useful and informative. Food advertising tends to promote dietary imbalance. Dietary supplements and alleged weight-control products are promoted in a wide variety of misleading ways. Ads for tobacco products appear intended to distract attention from their dangers. Health-related products promoted by mail, by telephone, by television infomercials, through the Internet, or through multilevel distributors rarely live up to the claims made for them. Although government agencies can stop many misleading promotions, regulatory action provides only limited protection and cannot substitute for intelligent consumer behavior.