Online advertising has helped drive a boom in cosmetic procedures around Australia and worldwide. The nature and optics of some social media and website marketing of cosmetic procedures could harm the public. Since 2021, we have appeared on Four Corners, 7.30, 60 Minutes, and The Project and have been quoted extensively in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC, The Australian and Courier Mail among others regarding our investigative research into the cosmetic surgery and injectables industry. Our research into Haytox was also investigated and an article was published in the British Medical Journal (the BMJ). We have successfully advocated for regulatory change with cosmetic surgery and injectables. World-first regulatory reform around cosmetic surgery and injectables (particularly around social media and advertising) has been achieved in Australia as a result. More change is on the cards.
We have monitored hundreds of Instagram accounts of providers offering cosmetic procedures and have noted many practices. We have unique insights in the way social media is being used to market cosmetic surgery to all Australians including young people and children. If you'd like to read more about us (Michael Fraser and Maddison Johnstone) please visit our Media page or Team page.
We are currently offering a few services off the back of our investigative research.
Speaking
We provide expert commentary on various media platforms and are also engaged to speak at conferences, seminars, TV shows and other events. We have been engaged to speak at events both in Australia and internationally. Our research into the cosmetic surgery and injectables space and social media advertising gives us a unique perspective and we are able to provide interesting, insightful commentary at your event.
Most corporate or industry events seek speakers who will present sympathetic views or industry spiel. This can lead to monotonous and unstimulating events where there is no thought-diversity among speakers. As speakers, we provide an important balance to these events and are not afraid to go against the grain to reflect our research and experience. We also speak on topics regarding consumer advocacy, research, worker rights, corporate misconduct, and franchising. Please call us (our numbers are on the Team page) or enquire here.
Website Scan - TGA Terms
The TGA updated their guidance in March 2024 on advertising cosmetic injectables in Australia. We offer a service where we use proprietary software to scan injector websites that are advertising cosmetic injectables. This scan checks against a number of terms which are used to advertise S4 medicines, and produces the number of potential breaches. These potential breaches are outlined in a clean, easy-to-read report where it is easy to identify where each term is located. A number of injector clinics have already commissioned from us a fast and affordable scan of their website, meaning their website's exposure to TGA action could be reduced compared to those who are not compliant. An injector failing to understand their exposure to this could find themselves facing fines or prosecution.
A preliminary report into injector websites is showing close to 100% non-compliance of TGA advertising rules. The advertising of cosmetic injectables is likely to be a priority for the TGA to crack down on due to the Federal Health Minister making strong comments on these issues, so it is imperative those marketing cosmetic injectables are compliant. Please call us (our numbers are on the Team page) or enquire here if you would like to understand your exposure to the TGA's advertising rules, and to learn more.
Social Media Optics Audits
Are you advertising in the cosmetic surgery and injectables space? It's possible you're breaching advertising guidelines. We are offering Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Website audit services for providers advertising cosmetic surgery. Don't wait to be flagged by the regulator.
A national review was finalised into the cosmetic procedure industry. Providers who work in this space need to be aware of their social media and website presence, the optics of their advertising online, and the ethics around how they are marketing to Australian audiences. 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 monitored 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. Regulators are likely to ramp up their presence in monitoring social media of providers, so this is something that should be prioritised by providers going forward. We are offering a ‘health check’ audit service to the following:
- Cosmetic surgery, medicine (injectables, etc), or dentistry clinics,
- Individual doctors who do cosmetic surgery including:
General Practitioners, Plastic Surgeons, other specialist doctors, and medical practitioners with no specialty,
- Dentists who do cosmetic dentistry,
- Cosmetic Nurses, and
- Colleges and associations that have fellows who work in the cosmetic space (we will provide a summarised, de-identified audit of themes found).
If you’re not mentioned here, but would like our services, please contact us.
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.
Advertising Guidelines
Colleges and associations who are concerned about the social media advertising of their practitioners are welcome to contact us about developing a set of guidelines. These guidelines would be a comprehensive guide on the ethics and optics of advertising cosmetic surgery on social media. They can be created to suit the needs of this growing industry to ensure best practice and to help protect the public from misleading results.
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