WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Advertising is designed to convince consumers to take an action -- buy a food or product, go to an event, take up an activity -- but targeted health content may act to dilute skepticism about medicines or treatment, posing potential risk to health.
Researchers at Dartmouth University found in a recent study that health advertorials, a form of native advertising made to look like reported content in a publication or on television, work to convince readers in ways intended to deceive their views and lower consumer awareness.
Such content tricks readers or viewers into thinking what they are seeing is purely informational, according to the researchers, dating back to infomercials, editorials and advertorials used in the late 1940s.
In many cases, marketers avoid using the word "advertisement" unless they are required to, and when combined with statistics or "health information" placed above a more obvious ad, consumers are even more susceptible to the deception.
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"Until now, there has been no empirical evidence that has tested the core elements of persuasion tactics in advertorials, namely their unique structure and labeling and its impact on information processing," Sunny Jung Kim, an e-health communications researcher at Dartmouth University, said in a press release. "These advertising tactics are pervasive across various forms of media, from newspapers and magazines to social media. Our findings have broad implications for health researchers, advertisers and consumers."
For the study, published in the journal Communication Research, researchers recruited 673 people, examining the cognitive and persuasive effects of health product-related advertorials.
In part one of the study, researchers found consumers were less averse to the messages in advertorials, as opposed to pure advertisements, because they did not trigger participants' feelings of being sold to. The second part of the study found the structure of the advertorial -- placing useful information before advertising a product it relates to -- eased participants' skepticism of the product.
Combined, the two appeared to increase the willingness of the participants to buy products in the advertisements.
"This form of advertising appears to be on the rise as advertisers try to embed their ads in the stories we read and the photos we see in almost every platform of social media," said Dr. Jeff Hancock, a professor of communication at Stanford University. "Understanding how these advertorials operate cognitively can improve guidelines for the prevention of misleading or confusing consumers."
