Health Branding Ethics

Abstract

Commercial food health branding is a challenging branch of marketing because it might, at the same time, promote healthy living and be commercially viable. However, the power to influence individuals' health behavior and overall health status makes it crucial for marketing professionals to take into account the ethical dimensions of health branding: this article presents a conceptual analysis of potential ethical problems in health branding. The analysis focuses on ethical concerns related to the application of three health brand elements (functional claims, process claims, and health symbols) as well as a number of general concerns that apply to health branding as such. Being a pioneering analysis, this article advances the academic understanding of health branding and provides practitioners with knowledge of important concerns to take into account when marketing health brands.

Self-rated health among women and their assessment of the health care system / Samoocena zdravja med ženskami in njihov odnos do zdravstvenega sistema v sloveniji

“…Health promotion activity that focuses on diet, smoking and exercise without addressing poverty, social isolation, gender roles in caregiving, socio-economic inequalities, occupational and household hazards and environmental pollution will not be in women's best interest (4). Critical analyses of health care systems call attention to the fact that quicker solutions are to be found in reducing social differences and providing access to health services for everyone (23,15). Welfare states are important determinants of health and health (in)equalities as they mediate the extent and impact of the socio-economic position on health (24, 1).…”

Autonomy as license to operate: Establishing the internal and external conditions of informed choice in marketing

“…healthy breakfast cereals) are extended with new product categories of a lower quality (e.g. unhealthy breakfast bars), but the consumer automatically transfers the quality perception of the original brand product to the new category extension exactly because the brand functions as a quality proxy (Anker et al, 2011). To avoid misleading marketing and protect the consumer, it is paramount that we find ways of facilitating and protecting classic consumer autonomy and informed decision-making by operationalizing the internal and external conditions of autonomy.…”

“…Health and nutrition claims are heavily regulated in developed markets and the requirements for the use of health claims are higher and more restrictive. However, as many consumers interpret nutrition claims as de facto health claims, marketers can intentionally use true and substantiated nutrition claims to influence consumers to believe that the product is healthy, although a health claim would not be substantiated (Anker et al, 2011). Likewise, consumers tend to interpret process claims such as “organic” as health claims, although unhealthy products (such as chocolate bars and fizzy drinks) can be organic because the claim is about how the product has been produced and not about what nutrients it contains and whether these are good for your health (Anker et al, 2011).…”

“…However, as many consumers interpret nutrition claims as de facto health claims, marketers can intentionally use true and substantiated nutrition claims to influence consumers to believe that the product is healthy, although a health claim would not be substantiated (Anker et al, 2011). Likewise, consumers tend to interpret process claims such as “organic” as health claims, although unhealthy products (such as chocolate bars and fizzy drinks) can be organic because the claim is about how the product has been produced and not about what nutrients it contains and whether these are good for your health (Anker et al, 2011). We therefore theorize that marketing communication has to respect the epistemic integrity of the consumer by not intentionally exploiting known vulnerabilities in their decision-making process through true but manipulative information.…”

Branding of prescription and non-prescription drugs

“…As it turns out, potential ethical problems in pharmaceutical branding can be expected to arise in the future [70][71] . Finally, World Health Organisation's (WHO) ethical criteria for pharmaceutical promotion should be taken into consideration in this review.…”