Good How Advertisements Affect Consumption Of Antidepressants Essay Example

Rubin is professor of counselor education at St. Thomas University in Mimi and he wrote the article ‘Merchandising Madness’ in order showcase how advertising played a role in convincing people that they need pharmaceutical drugs to feel and live better. This essay is set to explore how advertisements play an important role in influencing the buying behavior of antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs. The essay looks at how people often rely heavily on these adverts when they want to decide on what drug to buy according to the symptoms explained in such advertisements. Advertisements have played a significant role in expressing how important and essential psychotropic drugs are. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements today more than ever before. Most people rely heavily on advertisements when they make a buying decision. In the advent of technology and the internet, you can find these advertisements almost everywhere. From emails, web pages with catchy taglines and phrases to cold calls when you least expect them. Pharmaceutical companies have seen the importance of these mediums in communicating to the public about the necessity to use these drugs in order to tone down depression and anxiety. The result of these advertisements is the notion of the general public that these drugs which have been labeled the ‘happy pills’ can provide a quick fix to emotional discomfort and depression. The pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline who sell antidepressants have ‘completely distorted the boundaries between the normal and pathological experience of anxiety and depression’ (Rubin 410). Drugs like Prozac has been said to not only cure depression but also changing people’s personality, ‘turning them from shy to social butterflies’ (Kramer 1997).
In my view, many people diagnose themselves with an absolute condition according to the symptoms that are stated in a given advert; this leads to a decision that that particular drug is the ultimate cure for their condition. Personally I have taken antidepressants following an advert because I thought I had the exact symptoms described in the advertisement. It therefore, leads to deconceptualization of the symptoms that are presented in the adverts and, therefore, a person develops a mentality that the particular drugs being advertised are the best cure for their condition. In most cases, these psychotropic drugs offer just but a temporary solution to the emotional discomfort that one may be suffering from. Merchandising madness discusses how pharmaceutical companies use advertising to persuade people that they need psychotropic drugs to live better as well as feel better. As a result of these campaigns, gender stereotyping has manifested itself predominantly due to the target market for these advertisements. Most of these adverts are aimed at women who are perceived as weak and emotional unlike men who are seen as strong. Drug companies often carry out big marketing promotions, and they have come to realize that women are more vulnerable to these suggestive advertisements, and they tend to express more emphasis and belief in these adverts. That is why they have designed them in such a way that they will capture the attention of women without much ado and second thought.
High sales in psychotropic drugs are widely attributed to the success of advertising as well as the way mental illness and depression is defined by these companies. People are no longer able to identify mere anxiety and severe conditions of depression and mental illness. Conditions like lack of sleep don’t necessarily denote depression or illness. Thinking about how to pay your monthly bills doesn’t mean that one is depressed. Losing a job doesn’t mean that somebody will most definitely suffer from depression or mental illness. Advertising companies does not define the clear boundaries of these two states and doesn’t state at which point one should be prompted to use these particular drugs. ‘It is inaccurate to interpret depressed state of mind or even simple depressed emotional state as a disease’ (Breggin 14). The fact that women do ‘a larger percentage of the representation of these drugs has perpetuated gender stereotyping that women need more of these drugs than men’ (Rubin 415). People should be able clearly to differentiate ordinary tiredness and acute depression or mental condition. Advertisements have continuously worked in blurring obscuring the symptoms of these two scenarios and work towards ensuring that someone’s situation suits what they define as depression and anxiety. Taking these pills doesn’t immediately or necessarily cure your illness or give you the ‘better life’ or ‘better feeling’ as the adverts state, but rather provides a temporary feeling of relieve to the user.
People believed that all they needed to feel better was this ‘wonder drug.’ Pharmaceutical companies are very quick in pointing out the ‘positive’ effects of antidepressants for those with the symptoms that are described in the adverts. Many of my friends rely heavily on these drugs when they feel that they have been overwhelmed by daily struggles of juggling school with their social life and in the long run they become dependent on these drugs. The companies mainly target young people who are deemed to undergo so many issues during this critical phase of their lives. And, therefore, these companies are quick to make sure to earn the loyalty of such segment of customers because they know that they will have a longer time to take these drugs. Technological advancements have significantly contributed to the familiarization of these drugs to the general public. At this age and time, companies are using all mediums to make sure that people are aware of what they are selling and how to get them. Online stores offer such products as drugs at just a click of a button, and they are delivered to your doorstep. When young people and older people alike start exploiting these channels of acquiring drugs, the trend becomes an upward surge of using these antidepressants.
In the advent of massive advertisement of these drugs as the ultimate answer to our mental and depression conditions, nobody will tell you the negative effects or side effects of these medicines. It has been documented that users of these drugs develop adverse conditions as a result of using or rather abusing the drugs. Some people buy the drugs according to the advertisements that they have seen without necessarily examining whether the symptoms are severe or not. As these companies continue to bombard us with their marketing campaigns, we should be careful about their effects and be able to know when we need the drugs and how often we should use them.

Works Cited

Breggin, Peter. The Antidepressant Fact Book. Cambridge: Perseus, 2001. Print.
Ford, Marjorie & Ford Jon. Dreams and Inward Journeys. 8/E. London: Longman, 2011. Print.
Kramer, Peter. Listening to Prozac. London: Penguin Books, 1997. Print