Evaluating the Content of Advertisements for Dietary Supplements in Malaysian Women’s Magazines

Advertising in printed media, including magazines, has become a vital source of information about dietary supplements for consumers. Within this context, the extent to which the manufacturers of these dietary supplements adhere to the standards and guidelines of good advertising practices remains relatively unexplored in Malaysia. The current study aimed to identify the purported health benefits of the advertised dietary supplements from selected women’s magazines and to evaluate the compliance of the advertisement contents with the Malaysian Advertisements Board (MAB) guidelines. The contents of 18 issues of popular women’s magazines in Malaysia were analyzed during a 1-month period in 2010. A total of 157 dietary supplement advertisements were analyzed and classified into 4 categories based on the ingredients, functional claims, the presence or absence of a Ministry of Health Advertising Approval Number (KKLIU), and violation of the MAB regulations. Chi-square analyses were used to investigate the association between the scores for MAB regulation violations and the advertised contents in the magazine. A total of 157 dietary supplement advertisements were analyzed. Malay herbs such as kacip fatimah (Labisia pumila), mas cotek (Ficus deltoidea), and tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia) were frequently advertised herbal products. Additional advertised substances included vitamins (n = 28, 17.8%), proteins (n = 16, 10.2%), and minerals (n = 15, 9.6%). The majority of the products (n = 21, 19.8%) declared cosmetic/beauty or antiaging functions, and 13.3% of the advertisements claimed to restore, improve, or enhance the sexual health of men or women. Overall, approximately 74.2% of the advertisements did not have KKLIU/MAL numbers. With regard to language, it was clear that the Malay-language magazines significantly violated the advertisement criteria of the MAB (P <.05). Nearly all of the selected magazines in some way did not fulfill the advertising ethics outlined by the MAB.