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The Social Reality of Depression: DTC Advertising of Antidepressants and Perceptions of the Prevalence and Lifetime Risk of Depression

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Abstract

This study is rooted in the research traditions of cultivation theory, construct accessibility, and availability heuristic. Based on a survey with 221 subjects, this study finds that familiarity with direct-to-consumer (DTC) print advertisements for antidepressant brands is associated with inflated perceptions of the prevalence and lifetime risk of depression. The study concludes that DTC advertising potentially has significant effects on perceptions of depression prevalence and risk. Interpersonal experiences with depression coupled with DTC advertising appear to significantly predict individuals’ perceived lifetime risk of depression. The study ultimately demonstrates that DTC advertising may play a role in constructing social reality of diseases and medicine. The findings strongly suggest that the social cognitive effects of DTC advertising are far-reaching, impacting pharmaceutical marketing strategy as well as presenting issues regarding public health and the business ethics of advertising drugs to consumers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. An early draft of this manuscript was presented at the 2006 annual convention for Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Florida, Gainesville, 32608, U.S.A.

    Jin Seong Park

  2. Marquette University, 53201-1881, Milwaukee, U.S.A.

    Jean M. Grow

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  1. Jin Seong Park
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Correspondence to Jin Seong Park.

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Jin Seong Park is a doctoral student at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He earned his MA from Marquette University and BA from Korea University in Seoul, Korea. His research interests include health communication and DTC drug advertising, mood and heuristics in consumer information processing and judgments, and international advertising.

Jean M. Grow is an assistant professor at Marquette University. She earned her PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Her scholarly work focuses on controversial advertising case studies. She has published extensively on Nike women's advertising, and her most recent scholarship focuses on DTC advertising of pharmaceuticals and public service announcements for Hepatitis C. In 2005, she coauthoured a book on creative strategy, Advertising Strategy: Creative Tactics from Outside/In (with T. Altstiel). Prior to joining the academy, she worked in the advertising industry with agencies such as DDB Needham, Foote Cone & Belding, J. Walter Thompson, and Leo Burnett.

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Park, J.S., Grow, J.M. The Social Reality of Depression: DTC Advertising of Antidepressants and Perceptions of the Prevalence and Lifetime Risk of Depression. J Bus Ethics 79, 379–393 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9403-7

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