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.
Companies that receive public funds for research and development and technological innovation (R&D&I) projects must comply with certain communication obligations in accordance with relevant Spanish and European laws. The aim of this work is to assess these requirements (including their advantages and limitations) based on the opinion of experts in the field. Interviews were conducted with R&D&I managers in national and regional agencies; innovation, transparency, and scientific dissemination specialists; and company directors. The results confirm the value of communicating innovation, in accordance with the current trends of innovation dissemination and the principles of transparency. Experts consider that the required communication requirements are insufficient and that their means and formats must be adapted to enhance the dissemination of innovation and improve transparency by promoting accessible content in a unified repository. They propose the measurement and assessment of the social impact of subsidized projects, as well as the possibility of subsidizing communication actions, as in European projects. Moreover, there is an urgent need to standardize the communication obligations of all proposals.
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