How Is Functional Food Advertising Understood? An Approximation in University Students

In functional food advertising, messages are not always easily understandable for the target audience. Current European legislation, enforced through Regulation 1924/2006, specifies that such messages should be clear and precise so as not to mislead the consumer. The objective of this study was to observe consumers’ understanding of messages in functional food advertisements. The methodology used was a self-administered survey filled out by 191 students enrolled in a Degree in Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Alicante (Spain). The results suggest that a large number of students do not know what functional food is and obtain information about these products mainly from labelling/packaging. The major means of communication through which they learn about health benefits via advertising is the internet, followed by television. Most respondents indicated that they understood related advertisements and found it helpful to be given additional information on health benefits. Worthy of note, the greater their level of understanding of the messages, the higher their level of distrust of advertising messages, which they considered to be deceptive or misleading.