Evaluating the Balance of Persuasive and Informative Content within Product-Specific Print Direct-to-Consumer Ads
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Evaluating the Balance of Persuasive and lnformative Content Within Product-Specific Print Direct-to-Consumer Ads Yzoz 6777
(7) Erin R. Holres, PkornD'
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MS Candidate. Division of Clinical, Social, and Administrative Sciences. Mylan School of Pharmacy, Duquesne University,
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Director. Office of Assessment and Educational Strategies, and Associate Professor. Mylan School of Pharmacy, Duquesne University. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
This study attempts to compare the prevalence of persuasive and informative appeals found in direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads of prescription drugs in consumer magazines. A content analysis of DTC ads in a stratified randomized sample of magazines published from 1995 to 2000 identified the use of 70 types ofpersuasive appeals and 12 types of informative appeals. The average ad employed the use of 6.24 informative appeals and 3. U persuasive appeals. DTC ads in magazines with a predominately male readership werefound to contain agreater number of persuasive appeals than ads in other
Key Words Direct-to-consumer advertising; Content analysis; Persuasive appeals; Informative appeals; Clinical usefulness
Correspondence Address Erin R. Holmes, PharmD, MS, University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, Faser Hall, Room 211, PO Box 1848, University. MS 38677- 1848 (e-mail: [email protected]).
'Dr. Holmes is now with the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, University. MS.
INTRODUCTION Today's healthcare environment bears little resemblance to that of just a decade ago. Formerly imbued with parentalistic relationships among healthcare providers and their patients, the current practice of medicine witnesses shared responsibility in decision-making (1-4). N o longer content to be passive, a belated consumerism movement now has patients extending their efforts to discern among providers and services of quality (5,6). Heightened awareness of managed care cost control mechanisms, the availability of health information on the Internet, and a responsibility to shoulder higher cost-sharing burdens have resulted in patients examining a plethora of available therapeutic alternatives with greater scrutiny (Z8,9).Women, in particular, are empowering themselves as more discerning consumers, being more likely than men to seek varied sources of health information and spending two of every three healthcare dollars in the United States (10,ll). Being fueled by these shifts in the healthcare environment is the emergence of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs. Reports of the increasing frequency (12) and
magazines. While the products most frequently advertised were for chronic nonlife-threatening conditions, a panel of pharmacists evaluated the majority of these products as having a high degree of clinical usefilness. Despite significant differences in the prevalence of certain types of appeals among ads for different products, the balance of persuasive and informative appeals did not vary considerably among them. Ads for drugsjudged to be more specious in clinical usefuln
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