Regulated products: health, alcohol, cannabis, gambling and finance

Some products carry rules that go far beyond general advertising law. Health products can harm people if promoted with false hope; alcohol, cannabis and gambling carry risks of addiction and harm to young people; and investment promotions can cost audiences their savings. For these categories, product-specific laws decide not only how a product may be advertised but sometimes whether it may be promoted by creators at all. This lesson surveys the main regulated categories in your country, explains the extra rules for each and shows how creators can decide whether to accept a deal and how to keep content within the lines. This is awareness-level information; regulated categories are exactly where specialist legal advice is most valuable.

Why regulated categories need extra care

Three features make these categories different. First, the harm from a misleading message can be serious: a person who delays medical treatment, develops a gambling problem or loses their savings suffers more than one who buys an overpriced gadget. Second, many of these products are legal only for adults, so content that reaches minors creates its own problem. Third, separate regulators with their own powers oversee each category, in addition to the general advertising regulator, so one post can draw attention from several agencies at once.

Health products: drugs, natural health products and devices

In Canada, health products are regulated under the Food and Drugs Act and its regulations, administered by Health Canada. Several rules matter directly to creators.

• Advertising a health product in a way that is false, misleading or deceptive, or likely to create an erroneous impression about its character, value, composition, merit or safety, is prohibited.
• Prescription drugs may not be advertised to the general public beyond their name, price and quantity. A creator cannot promote a prescription medicine's benefits, even with a disclosure.
• Natural health products, such as vitamins, herbal remedies and probiotics, must have a product licence and a Natural Product Number (NPN) or Homeopathic Medicine Number (DIN-HM) before they are sold. Advertising must be consistent with the claims authorized on the product licence. A creator cannot add claims the licence does not include.
• The Food and Drugs Act prohibits advertising to the general public any product as a treatment, preventative or cure for serious diseases listed in its Schedule A.1, such as cancer, except in narrow circumstances.
• Cosmetics cannot make drug claims. A moisturizer can say it hydrates skin; it cannot say it treats eczema unless it is authorized as a drug or natural health product.

Health Canada's 2023 guidance on distinguishing advertising from other activities for health products explains that messages promoting a product's sale or use, including by influencers, are advertising. Ad Standards offers voluntary preclearance for consumer advertising of some health products. In practice, creators promoting a natural health product should ask for the NPN and the authorized claims, and stay within them.

Food and nutrition

Food claims sit between general advertising law and health rules. Nutrient content claims ("high in fibre," "low fat") and health claims ("reduces the risk of heart disease") have defined conditions. Creators promoting food and drinks should use the brand's approved claims and avoid adding their own health benefits, such as calling a snack "a cure for bloating." Diet, weight loss and detox products are a frequent enforcement target in both countries because claims are often exaggerated and audiences vulnerable.

Alcohol

Alcohol advertising in Canada is governed by provincial liquor laws and regulators, by federal food labelling rules and by the Code for Broadcast Advertising of Alcoholic Beverages, which many provinces apply to all media. Common requirements include: no appeal to people under the legal drinking age, which is 18 or 19 depending on the province; no association with driving, dangerous activities or social, sexual or professional success; no encouragement of excessive drinking; and people shown drinking must be, and appear to be, of legal age. Some provincial regulators add stricter rules, so check the standards in each province where the content will run. Creators who promote alcohol should be of legal drinking age, check their audience age data and follow the platform's age-gating tools.

Cannabis and tobacco

Cannabis is legal in Canada, but promotion is tightly restricted. The Cannabis Act prohibits promotion of cannabis, cannabis accessories and related services except in narrow circumstances, and specifically prohibits promotion through testimonials or endorsements, through depictions of people, characters or animals, and in ways that associate cannabis with a way of life, such as glamour, excitement or risk. In practice, paid influencer promotion of cannabis brands is effectively prohibited. The Tobacco and Vaping Products Act similarly bans testimonials, endorsements and lifestyle advertising for tobacco and restricts vaping promotion. Most platforms also prohibit branded content for these products.

Gambling and betting

Online gambling in Canada is regulated provincially. Ontario, which opened a regulated online market in 2022, has the most developed rules. Since February 28, 2024, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario's standards prohibit the use of active or retired athletes in online gambling advertising, except to promote responsible gambling, and prohibit using celebrities, influencers or role models who are likely to appeal to people under 19. Gambling content must not target minors or problem gamblers, misrepresent the odds or suggest gambling is a way to financial success. Creators should not promote unregulated offshore gambling sites, which may be illegal to advertise in their province.

Financial products and finfluencers

Creators who discuss money, often called finfluencers, can provide valuable financial education. But promoting specific investments, trading platforms or crypto assets for pay can bring them within securities law, which is much stricter than general advertising law.

In December 2025 the Canadian Securities Administrators and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization published Joint Staff Notice 31-369 on finfluencers. It says that anyone in the business of advising on or trading in securities must be registered unless an exemption applies, that promotional content encouraging an investment can amount to advising or trading, and that a "not financial advice" disclaimer does not by itself avoid registration. Where a finfluencer is paid to promote securities or holds an interest in them, the interest must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed, explaining who pays, how much or what kind of benefit, and which security is involved. Firms and issuers that hire finfluencers remain responsible for what they say and are expected to have written agreements, training and monitoring. Pump-and-dump schemes and other misleading or manipulative conduct are prohibited regardless of disclosure.

Audience composition

For age-restricted products, the audience matters as much as the message. Platform analytics show the age distribution of a creator's followers, though they are estimates and may be incomplete. A creator can calculate the share of the audience that is of legal age and compare it with the threshold required by law, industry codes or platform rules.

Deciding whether to accept a regulated deal

Before accepting any deal in a regulated category, a creator should ask:

• Is this product legal to sell and to advertise where my audience lives, and is creator promotion permitted?
• Does the brand hold the required licence, product number or registration?
• What claims am I being asked to make, and are they authorized or substantiated?
• Is my audience of the right age, and does my content appeal to minors?
• Does the platform allow branded content for this category?
• Would promoting this product be consistent with what my audience expects from me?

If the answer to any of the first five questions is no or unclear, decline or get specialist advice.

Health professionals as endorsers

Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, dentists and other regulated health professionals carry extra credibility, and their professional bodies often add rules on top of advertising law. Many professional regulators restrict or prohibit members from endorsing commercial products, from using testimonials and from making claims that are not supported by evidence. A creator who is a health professional should check their regulator's advertising and conflict-of-interest standards before accepting any deal, should never imply that their profession or regulator endorses a product, and should disclose payments especially clearly because audiences give their views more weight. Creators who are not health professionals should never present themselves as experts, use titles such as "nutritionist" loosely where the title is regulated, or wear clinical clothing in ways that imply professional status they do not have.

When a deal falls in a regulated category, it is reasonable to ask the brand for written confirmation of the product's legal status, its licence or product number, the approved claims and any restrictions on audience or placement, and to keep that confirmation in your records with the contract.