Introduction
In the early history of direct-to-consumer advertisements, companies exaggerated, or even blatantly lied about the abilities of the product. In one advertisement for “Warner’s Safe Cure”, the Warner’s Safe Cure Company claimed to be able to cure Bright’s Disease and other kidney related diseases. Before the passing of the American Food and Drugs act, the company convinced consumers to buy their product through dishonest scare tactics and misleading home tests. They made such claims as “one half of all deaths are the result of kidney disease” and if the audience was in doubt, offered a “simple at home test” which required that the audience put “morning urine in a a glass … for twenty-four hours … If it is then milky or cloudy …show more content…
In 1962, the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments presented the FDA with even more control over the industry, overseeing the advertising sector (Fisher). This costs these companies a lot of time and money, because they must “invest an average of $1,137 million dollars and 12 years for the development of one potential new drug agent” before it can be sold to the public, and “most drugs prove to be … dangerous for human use”, so the process has to be repeated several times until they finally manufacture a functional drug (Ventola, 2011, p. 681). When this happens, their top priority is to create a profit by boosting …show more content…
This allows drug companies to expand their audience and customer profile to not just those who suffer from a disorder, but also those who may just think they do. This situation has caused controversy, as there are disagreements about “the role of consumers in medical decision making, the appropriateness of consumers engaging in self-diagnosis” (Donohue, 2006, p. 660). Since the introduction of Direct-to-Consumer advertisements, the roles of doctor and patient have evolved. Patients becoming involved with their own prescription process can lead to wrongful diagnoses because of altered perceptions. Today, these roles begin with an interaction between advertisement and consumer. The consumer learns about symptoms of a disorder from an ad on the television or billboard. Although the symptoms are explicitly named, the ad uses implicit messages to suggest that the consumer needs their product. Implicit messages are effective in subconsciously motivating consumers to buy the product, but “when consumers fail to infer an implied conclusion they miss the point of the message and … may draw a conclusion other than the one intended by the advertiser” (Kardes, Kim, & Lim, 1994, p.
In the early history of direct-to-consumer advertisements, companies exaggerated, or even blatantly lied about the abilities of the product. In one advertisement for “Warner’s Safe Cure”, the Warner’s Safe Cure Company claimed to be able to cure Bright’s Disease and other kidney related diseases. Before the passing of the American Food and Drugs act, the company convinced consumers to buy their product through dishonest scare tactics and misleading home tests. They made such claims as “one half of all deaths are the result of kidney disease” and if the audience was in doubt, offered a “simple at home test” which required that the audience put “morning urine in a a glass … for twenty-four hours … If it is then milky or cloudy …show more content…
In 1962, the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments presented the FDA with even more control over the industry, overseeing the advertising sector (Fisher). This costs these companies a lot of time and money, because they must “invest an average of $1,137 million dollars and 12 years for the development of one potential new drug agent” before it can be sold to the public, and “most drugs prove to be … dangerous for human use”, so the process has to be repeated several times until they finally manufacture a functional drug (Ventola, 2011, p. 681). When this happens, their top priority is to create a profit by boosting …show more content…
This allows drug companies to expand their audience and customer profile to not just those who suffer from a disorder, but also those who may just think they do. This situation has caused controversy, as there are disagreements about “the role of consumers in medical decision making, the appropriateness of consumers engaging in self-diagnosis” (Donohue, 2006, p. 660). Since the introduction of Direct-to-Consumer advertisements, the roles of doctor and patient have evolved. Patients becoming involved with their own prescription process can lead to wrongful diagnoses because of altered perceptions. Today, these roles begin with an interaction between advertisement and consumer. The consumer learns about symptoms of a disorder from an ad on the television or billboard. Although the symptoms are explicitly named, the ad uses implicit messages to suggest that the consumer needs their product. Implicit messages are effective in subconsciously motivating consumers to buy the product, but “when consumers fail to infer an implied conclusion they miss the point of the message and … may draw a conclusion other than the one intended by the advertiser” (Kardes, Kim, & Lim, 1994, p.