Survey of Illegal Healthcare products Advertisements Online Media

Abstract

Background: Thai people today have the habit of using the internet, which is used for communication, chatting, and large amounts of transactions for buying and selling goods and services. Advertising and selling health products online is easy using advertising communication strategies. The Food and Drug Administration has laws to control and monitor health product advertising, but illegal advertising was found, such as exaggerated claims of medicinal properties. This is the main factor that may cause consumers to become victims and be harmed by unsafe products.

Objectives: This study aimed to survey the advertisements and identify illegal health products sold or distributed online, and record them in the TaWai for Health platform. The information obtained will be used to develop recommendations and operational guidelines for the TaWai for Health network.

Methods: The descriptive research was conducted from April to May 2023 to explain the phenomenon of illegal health product advertisements via online media. There were 3rd-year Faculty of Pharmacy students at Chiang Mai University who had undergone the training and were people who searched for advertising information through an online platform. They searched for words or phrases that were prohibited from advertising, such as weight loss, breast enlargement, sexual enhancement, and disease treatment. Exclusion criteria included reporting health product advertisements that were not illegal or entering incomplete information. Then it checked against the law and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) database and entered the report data into the TaWai for Health system (Version 3.0), then analyzed, synthesized, and presented with descriptive statistics.

Results: From the study results, it was found that there were 979 reports of illegal advertising of health products online. A total of 979 reports were found of illegal advertising through the       e-marketplace platform at 65.00%. Among all reports, the highest category of illegal health products was cosmetics at 51.69%, followed by food products by 40.35% (dietary supplements and food products (40.35% and 2.86%)), herbal products, pharmaceutical products, and others at 2.86, 2.55, and 0.20%, respectively). When categorizing the boasting of properties, it was found that the properties of making the skin whiter and brighter were advertised the most at 33.64%, followed by treating disease at 15.56%, reducing acne, blemishes, and dark spots at 12.22%, losing weight at 11.92%, enlarging breasts and nourishing the female genitals at 11.11%, and enhancing male sexual performance at 7.68%.  

Conclusions: In this study, it was found that the top two products with the most illegal advertising were cosmetics that were mostly touted for their properties to whiten skin, reduce acne, and translucent. Moreover, dietary supplements, most of which promote weight loss and sexual enhancement. Therefore, in order to solve and manage this problem, the FDA should create a special website system; integrate government networks, encourage citizens to participate in monitoring; and increase cooperation by requiring the owner or administrator of an online platform to screen a seller of products and pre-qualify advertising messages before allowing advertising on the platform.