Cosmetic Surgery Advertising Compliance Now Overdue
Doctors are still not compliant with the Medical Board’s new advertising guidelines, despite rules coming into effect on 1 July.
Some of the changes introduced will include banning the use of language like “body goals”, “perfect” and “amazing”. While many doctors have removed glamorous and sexualised imagery, some websites and social media pages continue to use these photos.
Our advertising compliance audit service is a great way to highlight any potential advertising breaches.
Some Key Changes
Some important changes which have come into effect include:
- Images of people aged under 18 years of age must not be used in advertising cosmetic surgery.
- Must not use icons, such as emojis, to cover body parts for modesty or to indicate an emotional reaction to an image.
- Must not minimise the invasiveness of cosmetic surgery (for example, the use of words such as, but not limited to, ‘artistry’, ‘silhouette’ and ‘sculpting’ are inappropriate in cosmetic surgery advertising).
- Shall not use phrases that imply wellbeing will suffer without cosmetic surgery, such as ‘healthier, happier you’, ‘restore’, ‘youthful’, ‘best version of yourself’, ‘body goals’ and similar.
Social Media and Website Advertising Audits
With the regulator turning to proactive compliance checks, it’s important doctors and clinics remain vigilant in all aspects of their advertising. Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency CEO Martin Fletcher said any practitioners ignoring the new rules will face tough action.
"We are focused on cleaning up this sector. We’re spelling out what safe practise and responsible advertising looks like," Mr Fletcher said.
"We will not hesitate to use our regulatory powers to the full on anyone who tries to find loopholes to avoid these changes and jeopardises patient safety."
It can be difficult and time-consuming for providers to understand what they need to change, or what they need to be aware of going forward. As we have been monitoring hundreds of social media accounts, we are best placed to provide an audit for professionals in this space to ascertain the red flags, optics of their content and possible breaches of advertising guidelines.
We are offering our advertising compliance audit service to all who work in the cosmetic surgery space. Our advertising compliance audit service is a clear way to highlight any potential advertising breaches & will provide a summarised, de-identified audit of themes found in the social media realm.
Please note that our audits are intended for internal use only. These audits do not equal endorsement from our organisation of those being audited, do not provide or replace legal advice, and are not to be used as a 'tick of approval'. These audits are intended to identify red flags and optics concerns of content online.
To help ensure you comply with the new guidelines by the 1 July deadline, email us at office@opred.com.au or contact Maddison Johnstone (0434 003 822) or Michael Fraser (0458 369 975) to arrange an audit today.
Published: 4 August 2023