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Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2847

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

 

Publication type: Journal Article

Mant A, Darroch DB.
Media images and medical images
Social Science and Medicine 1975; 9:613-618


Abstract:

The study sought to examine the image of women portrayed in drug advertisements and how that image contrasts with the portrayal of men. Special attention was given to advertisements for mood-modifying drugs since women are the majority of users of such drugs. Content analysis was performed on nearlyh 500 drug advertisements in a sample drawn from seven years of the Medical Journal of Australia and the Australian Family Physician, the two most widely distributed general medical journals in Australia. The analysis revealed significant differences between ads for mood-modifying drugs and advertisements for other categories of drugs. In advertisements for mood-modifiers, pictures were used with greater frequency and those pictures were more often of women than of men, thus reinforcing the doctor’s expectation that the patient requiring such a drug will be female. However, assessment of the scientific appeal of the advertisements found no significant differences by sex of patient or type of drug. Overall ads showing both women and men were highly stereotyped as to sexual and social roles, notwithstanding the professional and clinical context in which they appeared.

Keywords:
*analytic survey/Australia/journal advertisements/images in ads/women/psychotropic drugs/sexism/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: JOURNAL ADVERTISEMENTS/IMAGES IN PROMOTION: MEN/IMAGES IN PROMOTION: SCIENTIFIC APPEAL/IMAGES IN PROMOTION: WOMEN/PROMOTION IN SPECIFIC THERAPEUTIC AREAS: PSYCHIATRIC DISEASES

 

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There is no sin in being wrong. The sin is in our unwillingness to examine our own beliefs, and in believing that our authorities cannot be wrong. Far from creating cynics, such a story is likely to foster a healthy and creative skepticism, which is something quite different from cynicism.”
- Neil Postman in The End of Education