Social Responsibility and Misleading Advertising of Health Products on the Radio. The Opinion of the Professionals

Abstract

This research studies the opinion of advertising professionals in agencies, on the responsibility in relation to misleading advertising of health-related products, on the medium of radio. Through a closed survey of these professionals with different types of response, dichotomous, multiple choice and Likert scale, relevant results were obtained regarding compliance and application of the law and social responsibility linked to an advertising that directly affect health. The results show that only 10% of them know the legislation, although almost 90% of those surveyed consider it necessary to have legislative knowledge, and for only half of these, is it important. A large majority assure that the health sector should be one of the most protected sectors in the advertising world and, it should be noted, that the vast majority of the professionals surveyed view the legal restrictions on advertising in the health sector as positive. There is no unanimity as to who is responsible for the message, agency or advertiser. For its part, radio is presented as one of the most serious media and less prone to misleading advertising. To conclude, it can be stated that the professionals of the agencies do not perceive the existence of misleading advertising in the health sector, neither do they consider radio as one of the media where this deception can most occur. However, they coincide in stating that the health sector is one of the most dangerous if the damage that advertising deception can cause to consumers is considered.