1. Introduction
There is opportunity for persuasive attempts to make people live a healthier lifestyle beyond the efforts of institutionalized health interventions: in this day and era, society is able to engage in preventive health behaviors with mere access to a computer and the internet. As argued by Giddens (1991) we have now entered a ‘new public health paradigm’ wherein health is seen as a part of our self-identity that we can now control. We create our health biography just like we do in choices we make in terms of the clothes we wear, what car we would buy and, in this scenario, what we believe is a healthy diet or exercise regime (Lewis, 2006). Individualized technologies such as the internet allow consumers a far wider access to
…show more content…
al (2003) “Is it disease or affliction that motivates the use of the internet, or is it that the well and healthy use the internet in a proactive manner?” (p.180). The latter thought is much intriguing, as these ‘well and healthy’ present themselves, in theory, a very profitable market for consumer products with health benefits. While at the same time, providers of self-help books, care products, dietary supplements, sports courses and relaxation sessions represent much more than profitable businesses: as they serve the purpose of preventive health care (Jayanti & Burns, 1998). It seems, however, unclear whether health information seeking behaviors or ‘health-consciousness’ signal a causal intrinsic interest in preventive health products. And while it is certain that technological developments in online advertising have led to great progress, online behavioral advertising services are still limited to targeting only the confined demographics whom have explicitly revealed an online behavior in a particular health domain, such as “having shown an interest in bodybuilding” (Facebook, n.d.). It could, however, be theorized the ‘health-conscious’ portrait a viable segment within the population, as they intensively search the internet for products and information regarding preventive health, while they are currently left excluded in OBA targeting