Posted by Nickengland on September 30, 2005, at 17:56:48
In reply to direct-to-consumer marketing: effective? helpful?, posted by AmyHarmon on September 29, 2005, at 20:31:26
Hi AmyHarmon
>I'd be curious to know, has anyone here tried a drug (whether officially prescribed or not) because of a commercial they saw about it?
When dealing with illness such as severe depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, i'd be interested too whether someone would base a 20 second drug commercial on whether they would choose the particular drug. I havent and never would. Reasons being, in the same way when I see a tampax advert usually the women look very fit, attractive, good looking, smiling faces etc and it shows a very brief shot of how absorbant the pad is. However the reality that i've come aross is that the women do not feel like they do in the advets which the companies would like you to think ;-)
If someone is hearing voices, on a mainc high, or suffering sucidal depression, how can they show that in the advert? Then show that the drug relieves the symtpoms all in a few seconds probably using the same smiling actor/actress faces? For this reason, I think the adverts are of poor taste and are only there to to truely make money first, treat the illness second. It should be the other way round.
Direct to consumer marketing would possibly be effective and helpful if it could show the realities of the drug and the illness it treats. For example, a person in a mental hospital very ill, (severe depression ~ late night recieving ECT perhaps, daytime schizoprenic paranoid etc.) then the person 6 months later after they have been taking drug X (real people, real life)
When people see the realities though, perhaps not many people would buy the drug from the advetising compared to the ones now and therefore there would not be as much $$$ for the drug companies. Like in the same way if people saw the realites of a particular tampax product.
The marketing can only really be fully effective and helpful for the drug companies profits.
Kind regards
Nick
poster:Nickengland
thread:561090
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050927/msgs/561367.html