From Public Service Announcements to Advertisements: Health Representation and Perception in the Media

MEDIA AND HEALTH LITERACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE, Prof. Dr. Erkan YÜKSEL, Editör, AUPRESS Yayınları/AUPRESS Publications, Eskişehir, ss.368-397, 2026

Communication efforts are being made to raise awareness and encourage actions

related to public health, such as preventing diseases, improving health, and

extending life. Public health campaigns encompass all efforts to create and share

health messages. Considering that we are in a period where health-related issues

require joint action not only locally but also globally, the implementation and

continuation of public health campaigns have gained importance. Social marketing

campaigns are at the forefront of the efforts made for this purpose. Communication

efforts and socially oriented advertisements carried out within the

scope of these campaigns are among the frequently used methods. Social marketing

involves applying commercial marketing ideas to help solve social and

health problems. These efforts aim to encourage the adoption of desired health

behaviors or change them in the desired direction, encompassing the general

public and considering the benefit to society. Health campaigns demonstrate the

increasing importance of health and well-being in all areas, including the promotion

of health services, disease prevention, health improvement, and quality

of life enhancement. In the public health system, it is important to recognize the

need for communication in promoting health services. Within the scope of public

health, the media is used to disseminate information for health education and

health promotion. The media facilitates access to information, access to healthrelated

news, and increases interaction within the framework of issues. Through

the media, perception management has become one of the methods used to guide

and influence the target audience on health issues. In public health campaigns,

it is important that the forms of representation in the media are created in

a way that contributes to the public interest and the development of society on

health issues.