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Just a short article to show a hidden manipulation concept used to sell a product by creating a demand by less than ethical means.
TV Ads, we all have seen them. Prescription drugs for sale. Who will buy! We have drugs to keep you sexually active, we have something for that "sad" feeling. Can't control your bathroom habits? Step right up! I will give you what you need.
The traveling medicine man is not a new concept. It has been around for quite a while. The old medicine man had some oils, home remedies and of course snake oil. Which is now back on the market for pain, but not on TV, From the wagon, he would use his wagon as a forum talk about aliments and then he would sell you something to take care of it.
Today, the wagon has been replaced by our television sets. Prescription drugs, formerly only talked about by the doctor is being sold on the TV. You still need a prescription, but Madison Avenue will sell you on it and you will then go to a doctor to get the prescription. So what is wrong with this? Well nothing. Well, almost nothing.
If you don't have the ailment, there is no sale. Who will buy something that they don't need? Well, no one. At least not so many. Some will buy anything that is for sale, but that is not enough of a market. So what can be done.
In the beginning of the ad, the real work of selling begins. The description of the problem. I will use one that I saw today to illustrate. There is a woman depicted that is "sad". She is asked, "Are you sad? Is it hard to get through your day? Can you carry on sometimes but other times you just feel too sad to go on?"
Well, who hasn't felt sad every so often. Many times because there is a reason to be sad. Husband lost his job, bills are piling up, who would not be sad. There are many reasons that someone is sad. These are not mentinedin the ad, however, you are only asked if you are sad. Sad for a few days? Well, sometimes. Then YOU might be DEPRESSED! But don't be sad about being clinically depressed! We have a drug for that!
If it is not obvious what has happened, the ad is not selling the drug, the ad is selling the condition. The ad is designed to suggest that you suffer from depression. Depressed people are sad so if you are sad, you are depressed is the Message from the Media.
That is the first objective of the advertisement. Suggest that all sad people might be depressed. Then they will also ask if you know someone that is depressed (sad has already been equated with depression) and when a friend suggests that they might be depressed and they have already seen the ad themselves, this reinforcement starts to be rather convincing and now a sad person is even sadder because a friend agrees with the commercial that she is depressed and that is serious.
Now that it is established that if you have a few bad days, you should see the doctor and you really are not going to him for a diagnosis, you have already been diagnosed as depressed, everyone knows it, you only need to get the remedy from the doctor and you know what it is already.
This is the purpose of the ads. To establish the condition, to self diagnose the condition and then to sell their specific product to treat the condition.
The really nice part for the drug companies is that it still sounds like it is a good thing. And each element of their objectives are a good thing if discussed separately. Are some people clinically depressed? Yes. Is being sad one of the symptoms? Yes. Is sadness that only symptom? No. Can the truly depressed person make a good judgment and diagnosis of their depression? NO.
Here is a link to 15 Symptoms as defined By Mayo Clinic staff.
One does not have to have all of these symptoms but usually there will be at least several that are present and there is really no problem unless there is a pattern of these symptoms or if they are severe enough to cause real problems. If you have these problems and you and/or your family are seeing them as a problem in your life, you should see a doctor.
But the drug ads not only don't mention that sadness or unhappiness in itself is not a diagnosis that you are depressed. The drug ads, instead, do rush to the cure! They also suggest with that powerful phrase, "Ask your doctor if XYZ is right for you!"
Some doctors will simply prescribe the drug. If they do, get another doctor. The Mayo Clinic spells out the proper method that a doctor will use to diagnose. The clinic also lists three major diagnostic tools that is needed for a real diagnosis. They are explained in detail at the link "Depression (major depression): Tests and diagnosis"
Real doctors will take something like depression serious but might not go through all the procedures if they know you might be able to see that you are not depressed as he does the physical exam in the office. A doctor that does not know you very well might be convinced that you are depressed. After all, you have been convinced, that is why you are there. Then he has to decide if you need the Laboratory work which might be affected by your insurance, your personal reluctance to have them and just go to an in office Psychological exam himself. He may or not be certified in this area so remember that he is not in his major field of expertise. In this interview, again to eliminate major depression is a lot easier to do than to get a good positive diagnosis. i.e. He might see that you are not depressed, but be convinced, as you are, that you have a real problem and he has another patient waiting on him so why not do what you want and give you a script so see what happens.
This would be the worse case scenario for an honestly interested doctor. If he is "working the line" he might just say, OK, try this and send you on your way. After all, you know the condition and you know the treatment!
The Treatment can be found at the Mayo Clinic - Treatment and drugs site as well. There are numerous drugs to fit specific types of depression and drugs are only one of many treatments that are offered.
So what is the problem. You still need to see a doctor. You still need to get a diagnosis. You still need the doctor to prescribe the drug or other methods of treatment so what is the problem? If you go to the Mayo Clinic, probably not much of a problem. But I don't have that luxury. My current insurance allows me to go to a good university clinic. My alternate coverage offered by my current employer has different places that I have to use. I know of some insurance plans that are even more restrictive on where you can get your health care. Free clinics are used by many people because they don't have insurance at all. All health care providers seem to be overworked, many extremely so, and others just don't have the time to follow ALL the steps.
I switched to the University Clinic after my most respected doctor in the area became too big and started to hire "medical professionals" and they did all the work and he just signed their recommendations for the scripts. With his little network, I could get practically any treatment I wanted if I asked for it. They pretty much took my diagnosis at face value and looked in their PDAs to see if the treatment lined up with my condition and wrote the script. What kind of doctor do you have?
My University Clinic does not have weekend hours and are only open when I work. I have to take off a day just to see them and even so, it is rare that I can get an appointment for "today" or even "tomorrow" even if I am sick. They will sometimes prescribe over the phone but not always. So if I am sick, I go to a community clinic and I have three doctors that I see depending on availability and if I am feeling sick I can see them this afternoon. I use them for regular stuff and go for my yearly check up at the University. A lot of people don't have my options.
They go where they can period. They are very likely to get a doctor that will simply take the approach that its easier to give you what you want and you can tell them if it is working or not and get on to the next patient. THAT is the problem. Even though it is known what should be done, if the patient comes in and knows what they want, they will most likely get it and feel cheated if they don't.
In this case, I am privileged. I have decent health care. I also have more than the average education and life experience. I will be retiring soon and I don't know if I will be able to maintain my freedom and choice in my health care, but that is getting into a different topic.
The drug companies are marketing very powerful drugs by selling the patient on the idea that they need a specific treatment without any regard for the patient's well being. Sure, you can tell the doctor if you are getting better, unless, of course you die first. You can tell him if you are having reactions that make you think that you might commit suicide, unless that reaction to the drug also prevents you from telling him that! These are powerful drugs and depression is a very serious matter. It is dishonest to use very good (I respect their ad writers very much, they are of exceptional quality and really know how to manipulate the public to take their suggestions!) and high tech techniques to merchandise these expensive and often not very well covered If at all.
This has been only about Depression. The big market is of course "sexual enhancement" drugs. In these cases, ask around. All you need to do is ask your doctor and unless you are on death's door he will just write the script. You can even order these on line and they will have a doctor interview you and give you the script. (I have seen the ads and I understand that this is happening in Canada and possibly in the US. Maybe someone can verify this for me). There are also sleeping aids which are addicting drugs, and breathing relief and many urinary problems.
There is nothing wrong with advertising. I love advertising. I have always respect it as an art form. Advertising is media at the highest level. Companies, even drug companies deserve to make money. They do need to be able to pay for future research. They can and do make great discoveries and are an important part of our comfortable and long life span. Their important role in our health and happiness is not to be denied. With this, also comes responsibility. Commercials that exploit people by working to create a market for their products by leading people into false needs for prescriptions is not living up to their responsibility.
I was led into publishing this little editorial by some comments of how the government is somehow too big and is interfering with the proper treatment of health problems by forcing the drug companies to put their disclaimers on their ads. I realize that this is an unreal and untrue opinion but that it is one that is being pushed by some as another example of why government is getting to big! Well, in this era of high tech advertising and psychological manipulation, it might not be a popular job, but someone has to do it. Even with the dreadful backlogs of the FDA the federal government is still better than the myth of big business of any sort living up to the task of self regulation. We need to improve the government's ability to better regulate those things that are important to us and that affect national issues such as health, our welfare and our educational systems. Some aspects of government should be reduced, but regulation is not one of them. This is one of the most important aspects of government in our present time. It may be that in the past, it was not so important. With the businesses being as big as or even bigger than government today, we need someone to help us to find the truth.
This advertising problem is important, but there are some safeguards in place IF the doctors and health care providers can and will do what is deemed proper. Without some government regulation, however, this is not always the case. I have not even touched on the use of spin by some (fortunately only some!) companies that will even resort to "spinning" test results and knowingly put products on the market that are not as safe as they claim. That may be addressed in another article. For now, I am just trying to point out the depth of advertising and how they can use psychological techniques to create the perception of a condition more serious than it really is for the sole purpose of merchandising their drug product.
I hope that this is informative as to the technique and I welcome your comments.
Thank you for reading.
LeZi
