Photo Credit: Mohamed Hassan/Pixabay
Unless your TV viewing consists entirely of C-SPAN, you’ve seen the drug ads.
No, not the “your brain on drugs” stuff, but slick pitches by the big pharmaceutical firms promoting their latest and greatest concoctions. TV ads hawk all sorts of stuff, but of late, the prescription drug promos have taken a sizable bite out of the advertising pie.
Not long ago, TV viewers didn’t have to suffer this bombardment of “better living through chemistry” hype. The only drug ads on the tube were for things like aspirin and antacids; nothing requiring a prescription. That all changed when pharmaceutical outfits discovered their primary sales method—reps visiting with physicians at their practices—was less effective in the increasingly industrialized health care industry.
So, instead of having one’s sales people pitch a particular drug to a physician, why not have the patients do it for you? Sell them on the value of the drug, and they’ll request it from their doctor. Some of the ads even say, “Tell your doctor.”
Frankly, I take issue with the ethics of this approach, but business and ethics have often had a stormy relationship. For example, consider the ad for a prescription medication to treat mania, a mental disorder characterized by hyperactivity, delusions and over-the-top euphoria. People who grapple with this illness often make impulsive decisions during manic episodes, sometimes exposing themselves to a variety of risks.
This condition requires diagnosis by a mental health professional. However, the advertisement itself contains imagery and statements that could potentially influence someone who doesn’t have mania to think they do. The makers of this drug are not alone in attempting to create consumer demand. After all, that’s the whole purpose of advertising. Nonetheless, it’s one thing to stir up interest in a particular brand of beer, and it’s another altogether to leave people wondering if they might have a mental disorder.
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All these pharmaceutical pitches employ an identical mode of indoctrination, one that relies on gushingly positive imagery of smiling, active people enjoying fun moments in pleasurable pursuits and interactions. However, because big pharma must inform us of the potential side effects of their elixirs after extoling the virtues of the drug in question, the narrators launch into a long, rapid-fire delineation of the many risks.
There could be rashes, infections, depression, seizures, sepsis, suicidal ideation and even death, which is a fairly substantial side effect. However, through sleight of mind based on neuroscience, the advertisers find a way to blunt the impact of this frightening language.
You see, at a general level, we have two brains: the cognitive or thinking one and the emotional or feeling version. So, as the cognitive brain is hearing the ad’s narrator drone on about all the possible dire side effects, the emotional one is awash in positive, visually attractive imagery, music and actions suggesting “everything will be fine.” And that pretty much seals the deal, because research shows we make most buying decisions on the basis of how we feel rather than some intellectual cost-benefit analysis.
Big pharma pushes back by asserting they are performing a public service, educating people about how to better manage their health. In some instances, that may prove true. However, in many more, they are selling people on medications, some of which come with significant risks, that may not be the best approach to treating their condition. What’s more, some ads could erroneously influence someone to believe they have a particular malady (like mania) by displaying actions that may or may not be associated with that disorder.
H. G. Wells said “Advertising is legalized lying.” But, in this instance, that’s not quite true. By cloaking its messages in drippy positivity, big pharma has learned to tell you the scary truth without triggering your fear response.
That’s pretty slick and just as slippery.
