Advertising bans in the health sector: A case study

ABSTRACT

This study aims to determine the advertising tools, advertising issues, individuals/organizations advertised, the types and amounts of advertising bans, reasons behind advertising bans, and regulations by examining the advertising bans delivered in the Turkish health sector. In total, 904 advertising bans in the areas of ‘covert advertising’ and ‘health’ were evaluated based on the decision reports of the healthcare industry. This study reveals that 58% of the advertising bans that were advertised via television were considered ‘covert advertising’. A majority of bans (84.3%) were observed in the form of detention of advertising with fines imposed in only 142 (15.7%) cases of advertising bans.

KEYWORDS:

• Marketing
• advertising
• bans
• covert advertising
• advertising tools
• advertising prohibition
• health sector
• Turkey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Fatih Santas is Assist Professor in the Department of Health Management at Bozok University. He received his MBA degree in Finance Theory from the Department of Public Finance, Gaziosmanpasa University in 2010 and PhD degree from the Department of Health Care Management of the Institute of Social Sciences, Hacettepe University in 2016. His primary areas of interest are healthcare marketing and strategic management.

Gulcan Santas is Research assistant in the Department of Health Management at Hacettepe University. She received her MBA degree from the Department of Health Management at Sakarya University in 2012. She is pursuing her doctorate degree at the Department of Health Care Management at Hacettepe University. Her primary areas of interest are healthcare marketing and health communication.

Ozgur Ugurluoglu graduated from the Hacettepe University School of Health Administration in 1999. He holds a Master and a PhD degree in Management of Health Institutions from Hacettepe University. He worked in Hacettepe University Ihsan Dogramaci Children Hospital before joining the university. He is an Associate Professor in Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Health Management at Hacettepe University. His primary areas of interest are healthcare management, strategic management of healthcare, and healthcare marketing.