Pharmaceutical Advertising Paper

Ads for pharmaceutical drugs are everywhere. They are in magazines, on television and radio, on billboards, and on the little bags that you get from the pharmacist. These days it is difficult to get away from all the drug advertising. All these ads are for products that require a doctor's prescription. The goal of advertising is to increase profits. By advertising so heavily for drugs that the majority of the population does not need, pharmaceutical companies attempt to create as large a consumer base as they can. In advertising directly to the consumer, the drug companies accomplish two objectives. First, they get information directly to the consumer. Second, they promote the product and

Despite this, the industry did not alter its ways, maintaining that its ad campaigns were "educational," and that people were able to make their own decisions about what they purchased (Payer 66). However, it is evident that the advertisements produced by the pharmaceutical industry are designed for the very purpose of making it difficult for people to make these decisions independently. This marketing produces a large number of often deceptive, misleading tactics which have a large influence on both consumers and medical practitioners. The chief beneficiaries of this marketing are not the consumers but the pharmaceutical companies themselves.

There are proponents of DTC prescription drug ads. They argue that “the ads inform patients about diseases and possible treatments, encourage people to seek medical advice, help remove stigma associated with medical conditions, and provide needed sales revenue to fund costly research and development (R&D) of new drugs (Drug Ads ProCon.org).” On the flip side opponents argue “that DTC drug ads misinform patients, promote drugs before long-term safety-profiles can be known, medicalize and stigmatize normal conditions and bodily functions like wrinkles and low testosterone, waste valuable medical appointment time, and have led to our society’s overuse of prescription drugs (Drug Ads ProCon.org).”

In 2015, the pharmaceutical industry spent over 27 billion dollars on advertising. The two greatest components of this effort were promotional advertising and free medication sampling, which the pharmaceuticals invested 15.5 and 5.7 billion dollars respectively (“Persuading the Prescribers”). Promotional advertising involves direct contact with health professionals, the most common being extravagant lunch conferences held for physicians and their staff. On the other hand, sampling involves distributing free sample of medications to physicians, who then have a choice of providing these samples to patients. As a result of these methods, the industry has seen revenue around $400 billion with 90% of physicians having a relationship with a drug company (Campbell 2007). Moreover, the prices of prescriptions continue to rise; a copay of a generic drug is $11.72, preferred brand drug is $36.37 and a specialty drug is $58.37 (Coleman and Geneson 2014). Although the profits are immense in the numbers demonstrated above, it is no surprise when pharmaceutical drug companies elevate their prices even more. For instance, recently Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of their medication Daraprim from $13.50 to $750. Keep in mind, this medication is used for threatening parasitic infections, aids, and cancer with alternative options currently found to be inefficient (Pollack 2015). Another example of this practice involves cycloserine, a drug used to

Commercialized on TV as the only solution to our numerous problems, Big Pharma preys on people who struggle through life. Although seemingly meant to heal, pharmaceutical drugs have destroyed countless American lives instead because gullible patients rush to their doctor demanding prescriptions. Want to lose weight? Give me a pill. Want more intense sexual encounters? I need a pill. Want to grow longer, shinier hair? Hey, I’ll just pop a pill. Although some medical conditions do require medication, not every case of discomfort should be treated with highly addictive prescription meds nor should those drugs be trafficked via commercials that target a hypochondriacal nation of couch potatoes too lazy to put forth the time and effort to prevent disease. Instead, far too many Americans simply find a quick fix at their local pharmacy. These prescriptions lead to addiction and in the end death. Therefore, if I could take away any one invention from mankind it would be the crass commercialization of pharmaceuticals.

Bill Maher once mocked the aggressive nature of the drug advertisements that direct you to tell your doctor that their drug is right for you. “Tell your doctor? Shouldn’t your doctor tell you what drugs you need. When you tell your doctor isn’t he just a dealer at that point,” said Bill Maher. The American public generally trusts their government to protect them from the hidden dangers prescription and over-the-counter drugs. However, that trust isn’t fully warranted as the FDA has been featured in the GAO report of “high risk” agencies which need drastic reforms. After all, the FDA is in charge of regulating the shameless drug advertisements that inundate the airwaves.

We in America tend to take medications for almost any problem we have, from headaches to gastrointestinal pain, to more serious chronic disorders such as depression and attention deficit disorder. While many of the uses of such medications may be necessary and legitimate, many are not, and due to this fact, many people become dependent on medications, mentally, and or physically. This problem is not simply the fault of the individual; in fact, the blame can also be placed upon the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies who produce the drugs. How often can one turn on the television to see advertisements for Claritin, Aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, or even Zoloft or Ritalin? The pharmaceutical industry is motivated by monetary

television advertisement companies, main intention is to captivate the audience in other to purchase their product that they are portraying. In this essay, I will be analyzing these two ads, “Whale” (Old Spice) and “Susan Glenn” (Axe). These ads are formulated to get their products noticed, along with sparking the interest of the other goods they may offer. Countless methods are used to convince the audience that’s being targeted to buy the product. Therefore, these ads are similar in its ability to gain the attention of their audiences by appealing to pathos. Through this essay I will analyze the rhetorical effects that help bring these commercials to life.

Words like “help,” “feel,” and “faster,” are used in this ad to subtly make readers believe that NyQuil will cure Mom’s illness quickly when, in fact, they really only say that the products might make her symptoms briefly subside quicker than another indistinct method of treatment. This subtle method of advertisement is actually very common in all types of ads. Another technique used to attract attention of audiences is the adorable image of a mother and daughter playing dress up together. When someone sees this image, they are expected to feel strong, loving emotion for the seemingly deep mother-daughter connection in the photo. This mode of persuasion, pathos, is used to play on the emotions of viewers who see this ad. By using pathos in advertising, advertisers are also showing the main values of a culture.

This advertisement, created in “2016”, was designed for publication in the US, as demonstrated by the English words and the American dollar sign. It targets an audience of parents in an effort to support the “movement against prescription drug abuse” by teenagers, namely “[the audience’s] children.” The advertisement uses a strong visual metaphor, an emotional appeal, and persuasive techniques to convey the message that prescription drugs are too widely accessible, and that parents should take action to decrease the drugs’ accessibility and therefore decrease prescription drug abuse and make their children safer.

There are many direct to consumer advertising for prescription drugs. On television, magazines, radio etc, you see the most recent advertisements for prescription drugs. After some people see the advertisements they soon rush over to their doctor and their illness and life would be perfectly pain and stress free. Making the public conscious of options for treatment is not a bad thing. But these false advertisements are misleading consumers onto unnecessary treatment.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) marketing of prescription drugs in America has been debatable. DTC marketing has its benefits and disadvantages. There has been much discussion with DTC marketing over the role of consumers in medical decision making, the appropriateness of consumers engaging in self-diagnosis, and the ethics of an industry promoting potentially harmful drugs. Drug marketing and federal policy governing drug marketing have both responded to and reinforced changes in the consumer's role in health care and in the doctor patient relationship over time. A benefit of direct marketing of prescription drugs is that patients have a direct route of being informed instead of having to visit the doctors and have a third party involved. DTC allows

Direct-to-Consumer Advertisements have both good and bad aspects to it, as discussed previously. The question that comes to mind is whether or not the beneficial sides outweigh the bad ones in the eyes of consumers, physicians, and other healthcare providers. According to Kannan et al (1), 97 physicians of the 155 surveyed, reported that patients asked about a drug advertisement they had seen. Of those 97 physicians, 51 of them agreed that the drugs they questioned about were not useful for their condition. Only 51 physicians of the 155 thought that this would help strengthen the relationship between them and their patients. Rather, 82 doctors thought it would hurt the relationships. This could be due in part that the doctor would be declining

Every year in the United States, thousands of pharmaceutical drugs are created, tested, and eventually introduced into the market for consumption by consumers in need. Moreover, because of these new additions of more effective, and therefore less expensive, medications to the market, society as a whole can have better access to safer, environmentally friendly, and economically rewarding products. Not only are the different treatments beneficial from a logical standpoint, they also provide consumers comfort; they can take solace in the fact that they are using the most advanced method of treatment they can. Still, despite the many benefits of the development of new, innovative medication, many consumers are still reluctant to try them, because

Think about how often you are watching your favorite show on television and all of a sudden you are interrupted by a commercial. The commercial begins with the following words, “Do you suffer with …” and this question follows with the following sentence, “if so, then talk to your doctor about … (the name of the medication that is being advertised)”. These prescription drug advertisements are being shown all over the United States multiple times a day. It is these advertisements that are used for publicity and marketing that are affecting Americans. The majority of Americans engage in watching television. The prescription drug advertisements do have a positive impact on Americans but, these advertisements do more harm than good.