Ad language for sensitive topics: an obesity treatment campaign

Some topics need more care in advertising than others. Obesity is one of them. A large part of the audience is personally affected, and one wrong sentence or image can cost a brand its trust in seconds. The "Modern Obesity Treatments" campaign film we made for Prof. Dr. Murat Üstün is one of the projects we built around that balance.

Explain without judging

Obesity treatment ads often cast the viewer as the owner of a problem. We chose to talk about the treatment and the doctor instead. At the centre of the film are a specialist's knowledge and approach. Rather than telling the viewer something about themselves, the film answers the questions they already have.

No before and after

Before and after images can run into platform rules and can make viewers uncomfortable. Meta restricts ad copy that implies a person's health condition, as well as certain visual comparisons. So we built the film's visual language around the clinic, the consultation with the doctor and the steps of the process.

A film that informs

There are many questions and much misinformation about modern obesity treatments. The campaign film answers those questions in the specialist's own words, in plain language. That approach fits platform rules better and builds trust with viewers. In Türkiye, doctors' promotional activity is limited by law, which makes an informative tone even more important.

Ad cuts

Short cuts from the main film, each focused on one question, work well for campaigns like this. Each cut answers a single question, such as "Who is this treatment for?" or "How does the process work?" The ad copy keeps the same tone: information about the topic, not about the person.

What we learned

On sensitive topics, the strongest ad can be the one that shouts the least. A calm tone, a specialist's face and clear information work longer than big promises. Read about our other healthcare campaigns in our Check-Up post. You can watch the film on our work page, and see how we can help your campaign on our ads management page.