Dietary supplement advertising in the US: a review and research agenda

Dietary supplement advertising is an important, yet neglected, advertising research subject. This article overviews the US dietary supplement industry, describes advertising practices for dietary supplement products, and reviews the existing research on the topic.

Dietary supplement advertising in the US: a review and research agenda

Denise E. DeLorme

University of Central Florida

Jisu Huh

University of Minnesota

Leonard N. Reid

University of Georgia

Soontae An

Ewha Womans University

Research on health-related product advertising has appeared in marketing and advertising journals for many years. Studies have examined a number of different issues and forms of health-related product advertising including nutrition claims in food advertising (e.g. Andrews et al. 2000; Parker 2003; Kim et al. 2009), children’s understanding of advertisers’ tactics (e.g. Rozendaal et al.2011), weight-loss advertising (e.g. Amos & Spears 2010), alcohol...

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