Television drug ads engage in such blatant deceptions and exaggerations that even the medical journals are starting to condemn the practice. This week, the Annals of Family Medicine published an analysis of popular drug advertisements that concluded the ads essentially lie to the public about the benefits of pharmaceuticals while utterly ignoring alternative health strategies like dietary or lifestyle changes.
The advertising practices of drug companies are so outrageous that even David Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, penned an editorial condemning them. In fact, Kessler says television ads never should have been allowed by the FDA in the first place (the FDA legalized drug ads in late 1997, after Kessler left his position there). Today, the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world to allow drug ads on television.
So how do drug ads lie to viewers? Essentially, they show healthy-looking actors roleplaying a fairy tale. At the beginning of the ad, the actors' lives appear to be in total disarray while they're suffering from some symptom (such as migraine headaches, restless legs, high cholesterol or whatever). Then, after getting on the drug, the actor's life is magically transformed into a state of perfection: They're happy, everything is cheery, life is glorious, all their personal relationships are suddenly successful, and so on.
Of course, the narration never directly says these drugs will transform your life and make you a happy, youthful, organized and successful person. Rather, it is implied by association through a carefully-construction formula of television influence that exerts its power through the messages that are not directly stated.
Beer companies pull the same trick when they show beer drinkers surrounded by sexy young women. The message that gets driven into the subconscious minds of male viewers is that drinking their beer will make them attractive to women. It doesn't have to be stated; it's presented in context, using body language and associative conditioning that the subconscious mind immediately understands.
Drug companies use the same influence strategies by associating their brand-name drugs with images of happy, successful, vibrant people. The message? Take our drugs and you'll be just like these people!
The advertising practices of drug companies are so outrageous that even David Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, penned an editorial condemning them. In fact, Kessler says television ads never should have been allowed by the FDA in the first place (the FDA legalized drug ads in late 1997, after Kessler left his position there). Today, the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world to allow drug ads on television.
So how do drug ads lie to viewers? Essentially, they show healthy-looking actors roleplaying a fairy tale. At the beginning of the ad, the actors' lives appear to be in total disarray while they're suffering from some symptom (such as migraine headaches, restless legs, high cholesterol or whatever). Then, after getting on the drug, the actor's life is magically transformed into a state of perfection: They're happy, everything is cheery, life is glorious, all their personal relationships are suddenly successful, and so on.
Of course, the narration never directly says these drugs will transform your life and make you a happy, youthful, organized and successful person. Rather, it is implied by association through a carefully-construction formula of television influence that exerts its power through the messages that are not directly stated.
Beer companies pull the same trick when they show beer drinkers surrounded by sexy young women. The message that gets driven into the subconscious minds of male viewers is that drinking their beer will make them attractive to women. It doesn't have to be stated; it's presented in context, using body language and associative conditioning that the subconscious mind immediately understands.
Drug companies use the same influence strategies by associating their brand-name drugs with images of happy, successful, vibrant people. The message? Take our drugs and you'll be just like these people!
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