Reference Material:
The amount of money drug companies spend on TV ads has doubled in recent years. And it’s no wonder: studies show the commercials’ work: consumers go to their doctors with a suggestion for a prescription drug they saw advertised on TV. Now a study in the Annals of Family Medicine raises questions about the message these ads promote, NPR’s Patty Neighmond reports.
You’re most likely to see drug ads during prime time, especially around the news. Researchers analyzed 38 ads aimed at people with conditions like hypertension, herpes, high cholesterol, depression, arthritis, and allergies.
The drug industry says the ads arm consumers with information. But researchers found that though the information was technically accurate, the tone was misleading.
UCLA psychologist Dominick Frosch headed the study.” What we would see in these ads is that before taking the prescription drug, the character’s life was out of control and the loss of control really extended beyond just the impact of the health condition,” For example, herpes patients were portrayed as being incapacitated for days, insomniacs utterly out of synch on the job and depressed patients friendless and boring at parties.
“When the character is then shown taking the drug, he then magically regains complete control of his life.”
None of the ads, of course, mentioned lifestyle changes that could also help treat the condition. After all, it’s mass marketing. But in this case, Frosch says, prescription medications are not soap.
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Sample Answer:
The money that drug companies spent on TV advertisements has doubled because commercials worked. Specifically, the patients go to their doctors with the suggestions for the prescription they saw on television. However, although the pharmaceutical companies provide technically accurate information, the tone is misleading. People with health conditions magically regain the complete control of the life after taking the medication, whereas none of the advertisement mentioned about lifestyle changes. (69 words)
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