The Evidences Conveyed in Advertisements of Dietary Supplements in Health Magazines

膳食補充品廣告如何保證健康效果？健康雜誌廣告的分析研究

邱玉蟬(Yu-Chan Chiu)

《農業推廣學報》 29期 (2012/07) Pp. 1-24

https://doi.org/10.29788/RAES.201207.0001

摘要

本研究的目的為分析廣告如何傳遞膳食補充品效果的科學證據。本研究分析2004至2006三年臺灣出版的健康相關雜誌中580則膳食補充品的廣告。結果顯示，廣告中最常提出的5種證明產品效果的證據為：研究、專家、認證、統計圖表，及其他證明。廣告中所引用的研究大部分是模糊與偏差的。出現在廣告中的專家則經常是「偽中立」的專家，這些專家透過直接或間接方式，幫產品背書。廣告中所提出的統計數據，則通常用來引起讀者對健康問題的害怕，並且以使用產品為解決方案。膳食補充品的廣告所提出的證據，雖然表面上看起來具有科學性與理性的說服力，卻是模擬兩可與扭曲。閱聽大眾應該提升健康與科學素養，以便可以適當研判與評估廣告中所提出的研究與證據。

關鍵字

膳食補充品 ； 廣告 ； 證據 ； 健康雜誌

並列摘要

A large number of people take dietary supplements regularly in Taiwan. One of the reasons that people use dietary supplements might be because they are convinced by claims in advertisements about their health effects, particularly when the advertisements cite scientific research or evidence.The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate how the advertisements of dietary supplements conveyed claims of scientific evidence of health effects. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this study analyzed 580 advertisements of dietary supplements in the top six health magazines in Taiwan from 2004 through 2006.The results show that five common categories of evidence cited in the advertisements were research, expert, certificate, statistics or graphs, and other unspecific evidence. The qualitative analysis show that the research cited in the advertisements was usually vague and biased. The experts who appeared were either pseudo-disinterested professionals who indirectly endorsed the products or overtly endorsers. Statistics in the advertisements were usually employed to increase the readers' fear about the health problems and then promote the product as a solution.The results of this study indicate that the evidence presented by the advertisements of dietary supplements seems to be convincing and plausible, but in fact the evidence is often ambiguous and distorted. This study suggests that there is a need to increase the public's media and scientific literacy in order to enable them to appropriately interpret and evaluate the research and evidence cited in such advertisements.

並列關鍵字

Dietary supplement ； Advertisement ； Evidence ； Health magazine