Pharmaceutical Advertising: Friend or Foe?
Smiling faces, happy feelings, is this what you think of when you hear depression, allergies, and ADHD? Usually not, however, somehow pharmaceutical companies put these two very different feelings together in their ads. Advertising is everywhere, on televisions, radios, billboards, t- shirts, in newspapers, magazines, need I go on? It’s everywhere because businesses of all sorts depend on them to bring in customers and therefore making a profit. “Fundamentally, the marketing concept is a philosophy about doing business” (Corstjens 3). In recent decades pharmaceutical companies have been contributing to the millions of ads shoved into consumers’ faces. This type of marketing is called direct- to- consumer advertising, and drug companies have made it a top priority. It is unethical the way drug companies present their product to consumers, side effects get pushed aside by actors whose lives are perfect because of a pill, patients and doctors are persuaded too quickly and marketing creates a false feeling of need. Pharmaceutical advertising is a foe to consumers.
