Alcohol Advertising Regulation for the Adult Population: An Analysis of Distilled Spirits Radio Endorsements in Spain.

OBJECTIVE: Restrictions on advertising of high-alcohol-content beverages aims to prevent consumption in young people and alcohol misuse in adults. The main objective of this research was to analyze the presence of distilled spirits mentions and its compliance with legislation in relation to the minor protection time slot, the factors associated with drinking, and the promotion of excessive consumption. METHOD: We conducted a content analysis of all advertising mentioning spirits broadcast throughout 2017 on news/talk radio stations targeting an adult audience in Spain. We identified 355 radio mentions. RESULTS: The special protection time slot for minors was disregarded in 91.8% of cases. Radio personalities encouraged immoderate consumption in 76.6% of the analyzed mentions, and associated alcohol consumption with improved physical performance, social success, or health in 42.3% of cases. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals the shortcomings of public administration in the control and monitoring of spirits mentions in the radio medium, in a context in which the adult population is unprotected against messages that frequently encourage excessive consumption and associate it with positive and gratifying values.

Health Sufficiency Indicators for Pandemic Monitoring.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, spreading all around the world and causing a worldwide pandemic, has lead to the collapse of the health systems of the most affected countries. Due to the ease of transmission, early prevention measures are proved to be fundamental to control the pandemic and, hence, the saturation of the health systems. Given the difficulty of obtaining characteristics of these systems of different countries and regions, it is necessary to define indicators based on basic information that enable the assessment of the evolution of the impact of a disease in a health system along with fair comparisons among different ones. This present paper introduces the Health Sufficiency Indicator (HSI), in its accumulated and daily versions. This indicator measures the additional pressure that a health care system has to deal with due to a pandemic. Hence, it allows to evaluate the capacity of a health system to give response to the corresponding needs arising from a pandemic and to compare the evolution of the disease among different regions. In addition, the Potential Occupancy Ratio (POR) in both its hospital ward bed and ICU bed versions is here introduced to asses the impact of the pandemic in the capacity of hospitals. These indicators and other well-known ones are applied to track the evolution of the impact of the disease on the Spanish health system during the first wave of the pandemic, both on national and regional levels. An international comparison among the most affected countries is also performed.

False and misleading health-related claims in food supplements on Spanish radio: an analysis from a European Regulatory Framework.

OBJECTIVE: The excessive growth of the food supplements' industry highlights the need to focus attention on all aspects involved in their proper consumption; one that takes centre stage is advertising. The aim of this research is to analyse the presence of false and misleading claims in food supplements advertising. To this end, a relationship is established between the different types of health-related claims and the substances on which they are based, whether authorised or not by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). DESIGN: This empirical work conducts a content analysis of all radio mentions broadcast throughout 2017 on news/talk radio stations. SETTING: Spain. PARTICIPANTS: All radio mentions broadcast on news/talk commercial radio stations in Spain with the highest audience levels. The corpus is composed of 437 advertisements. RESULTS: Results indicate that 80·3 % of function claims included in the analysed advertisements are not authorised by EFSA, while 20·4 % of disease claims are not allowed by EU regulation. Likewise, almost half of the substances referred to (43·7 %) are illicit: 54·1 % in function claims, 57·3 % in disease claims and 73·7 % in the case of reduction of disease risk claims. CONCLUSIONS: This work reveals consistent failures to comply with European regulation on food supplements advertising. The widespread use of unauthorised health claims and substances is aggravated by the indirect recourse of illness as a persuasive argument, descriptions of alleged benefits as product attributes and the omission of essential information. This leads to dangerous misinformation and can pose serious health risks. Stronger legal mechanisms are needed for effective consumer protection.

Alcohol and Betting Radio Advertising in Spain. A Comparative Analysis of the Minor's Protection Time Slot from a Media Responsibility Perspective.

This research analyzes the presence of advertising and radio mentions of alcoholic beverages and sports betting, two products that represent harmful behaviors for the audiences' health. To do this, a quantitative content analysis was undertaken for all of the programming of the three most listened radio stations in Spain (Cadena Ser, COPE, and Onda Cero) throughout 2017, obtaining a total corpus of 2848 radio messages distributed as follows: 266 radio spots and 2582 radio mentions. The messages were also analyzed according to the broadcasting schedules (protected time-slot or non-protected time-slot). The results showed that advertising and sports betting mentions were more present in the regular programming of the three stations (n = 2304), with mentions (n = 2582) being more numerous than advertising spots (n = 544). Moreover, it is evident that in practice, none of the radio stations respected the protected time slots since the majority of the mentions and spots of high alcoholic beverages and sports bets were verified between 6:00-21:59 (n = 2522). These results show the prevailing need for greater control over this type of content by public entities, demonstrating a significant lack of regulation by the media's self-control mechanisms.

Endorsers' presence in regulation and endorsements in dietary supplements' advertising on Spanish radio.

Healthy lifestyles provide a market niche for products offering health benefits in a context where consumers have a misconception of the characteristics and functions of dietary supplements (DS). Due to an increase of endorsers' advertising persuasion, their presence is limited and, in some cases, forbidden. The main objective of this work is to analyse the presence of endorsers in DS advertising on Spanish radio in order to verify its compliance with current legislation and determine the endorsements' characteristics. Specifically, this paper analyses the quantity, frequency, placement and endorsement type of DS spots on full-service radio stations. Content analysis of the totality of radio spots broadcast throughout the year 2017 is conducted, deriving a corpus of 165 different radio spots belonging to the product category of dietary supplements, broadcast a total of 10,566 times. The results show that 40% of radio spots use endorsers not allowed by law, such as health care professionals, typical consumers and celebrities. The latter have an unusually high presence in DS radio advertising, with one out of four spots featuring celebrities or opinion leaders, including journalists and radio hosts as well as a frequent use of testimonial endorsements. Implications for health and public policy are made.