Advertising wellness: How far is too far?
Wellness on the rise
Wellness – the industry based on the “pursuit of enhancing personal well-being” – has in the last decade emerged as a giant worth over $3.7 trillion globally. Free-from food, “green” or sustainable goods and clean cosmetics, now permanent fixtures of this sector, continue to mushroom both online and in bricks-and-mortar shops. There are a variety of factors which have been identified in the media as leading to this expansion, ranging from improved access to information and technology to changing consumer attitudes to well-being.
A natural consequence of such growth is that consumers have been introduced to a list of new advertising claims and buzz words which influence their choice of exercise, clothes, cosmetics and nutrition. Controversial advertising claims have been widely reported, such as when actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s company Goop advertised the healing properties of its bio-frequency stickers containing materials from NASA space suits (Goop subsequently amended its claim).
