Influence of Advertising on Cosmetic Surgery Decisions

While it is easy to ask why people have cosmetic surgery, it is not as easy to find the answer to the question. The thoughts that go through the mind of a potential cosmetic surgery patient are sometimes unknown. There are a lot of situations and scenarios that play out in the mind of potential plastic surgery patients especially as the day of the procedure draws closer. There are a lot of individuals who change their minds regarding getting a procedure during the countdown to the day of the procedure. This happens mostly with individuals who haven't had cosmetic surgery in the past or individuals whose consultation session with the surgeon wasn't very informative. The importance of the consultation session with the surgeon can't be overemphasized. It calms the fears and worries regarding a procedure and answers any question that need answering. In cases where the patient is getting cold feet for whatever reason, plastic surgery advertisements can remind them of why they decided to get the procedure in the first place. The ads can also show patients what they stand to gain and why it is the best decision for them going forward. Below is a quick summary on recently released research that attempts to provide an answer to the effects of advertisements on plastic surgery.

Effects of Advertising on Cosmetic Surgery Patients

One of the main factors that influence patients to have cosmetic surgery is the sheer number of advertisements promoting procedures such as breast augmentation or a facelift. Ads for cosmetic surgery can be found online, in magazines, on billboards and also on radio and TV stations in America. However, there are other parts of the world where these ads are not as prevalent.

This difference in advertising was noted by Eleni-Marina Ashikali of the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. She and her colleagues had previously done research on how cosmetic surgery ads affected British women. They decided to run a similar study in the French-speaking part of Switzerland to see whether the attitudes of women towards surgery were any different in this part of Europe.

Ashikali recruited 145 women at the University of Neuchâtel and randomly assigned them to four groups. Each group saw four advertising posters that were slightly different:

1. The first group saw cosmetic surgery clinic ads featuring attractive female models.
2. The second group saw advertisements that were identical but they also featured a discount of “700 Swiss francs off your first procedure”.
3. The third group had ads with no discount. Instead, they saw a warning about potential surgery risks such as bleeding, scarring, and infection.
4. The fourth group, as a control, saw ads for a flower delivery company instead of cosmetic surgery.

The women were also asked to complete a survey about body-image, as well as the Aspirations Index, which determines if people seek self-worth through money or popularity instead of their community affiliation.

The study results showed women exposed to cosmetic surgery ads were more likely to report a difference between their ideal image and their actual body image. 44\\% of the women wanted to be thinner while 68\\% wished their appearance was more attractive. Of the women shown ads for the florist, only 21\\% had a desire to look thinner and 24\\% wanted to change an aspect of their appearance.

After viewing these results, the researchers speculated that the lower amount of exposure to cosmetic surgery in Switzerland likely results in more of a stigma being attached to cosmetic surgery. As a result, Swiss women are less likely to have a positive attitude toward cosmetic surgery.

Ashikali compared the women who were high, or low, on materialistic values and found they were no different in their judgment of the benefits of cosmetic surgery if they had just been exposed to an ad for a cosmetic procedure. Among the women exposed to the florist ad, materialistic women were more likely to see the benefits in having surgery than the non-materialistic women.

In addition, both materialistic and non-materialistic women were no different in their judgment of the surgery benefits after seeing ads highlighting the risks of surgery. Materialistic women were more positive about having surgery, as opposed to the non-materialistic women, after seeing ads showing monetary discounts.

Should Plastic Surgery Ads be Legal?

The legality of advertising cosmetic surgery procedures is a topic that splits the opinion of a lot of people. A wide group of people strongly believe that the advertisement of plastic surgery procedures is inappropriate via mainstream media. Their beliefs are that the effects on the minds of younger individuals can't be controlled and also exposes them to things they should be shielded from at that age. 

Currently, cosmetic surgery providers are free to advertise their services without restriction on content or placement. Some people feel that the ads recklessly trivialize invasive surgical procedures that carry inherent health risks. In addition, they view the messaging and imagery commonly used in cosmetic surgery ads as undermining body confidence (which drives demand for cosmetic surgery). The negative psychological impacts of poor body image are severe and have prompted a parliamentary body image inquiry into the matter (due to report later this year).

At the moment, people have no choice but to be exposed to the aggressive marketing tactics of some cosmetic clinics whether they are in public places or they see them in magazines or on the Internet or TV.

Just as rules prevent prescription medicines being advertised in the interests of public health, critics of plastic surgery advertisements urge the government to prohibit the advertising of cosmetic surgery procedures.