Regulations on Covert Advertising: An Analysis of Advertising Board Decisions in Türkiye

Complaints regarding covert advertising are evaluated and sanctioned by the Advertising Board in Türkiye. This study examines the evaluations made under the title of covert advertising in the press bulletins published by the Advertisement Board. This study employs content analysis technique with purposive sampling. The decisions regarding 173 files under the title of covert advertising in the press bulletins of the Board decisions between January 2023 and July 2024 were examined. The most important finding of this study is the revelation that 87,3% of the penalties given were the suspension of the advertisements. Only 12,7% received administrative fines. According to the findings, the penalties were applied mostly to people who made covert advertisements on digital media, especially on Instagram. The top reason for penalties was the presence of links, tags, etc. without expressions such as advertising/collaboration (72,3%). This is followed by the presence of expressions praising, promoting, directing, and creating demand for purchase (31,8%). The main contribution of this study is revealing that while there is an abundance of covert advertising, the penalty given is far from being deterrent, especially on social media, a more nuanced approach and new policies are needed.