Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2987

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

Chapman S.
Advertising and psychotropic drugs: the place of myth in ideological reproduction.
Soc Sci Med [Med Psychol Med Sociol] 1979 Nov; 13A:(6):751-64

Abstract:

Advertising as a form of mass communication emanating from established capitalist enterprise, reproduces ideology conducive to the preservation of the social order that sustains that enterprise. Using selected advertising of psychotropic drugs from Australian medical journals as case studies, three main areas in which ideological statements are made are examined. These are: doctors and doctoring, patients and notions of mental illness, and the psychotropic drugs often used in mediation between the two. The supportive argument used is that imagery used in advertising is essentially mythical. A framework for decoding meaning in advertising is provided.

Keywords:
*analysis/Australia/journal advertisements/psychotropic drugs/images in ads/myth/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: JOURNAL ADVERTISEMENTS/IMAGES IN PROMOTION: MYTH/PROMOTION IN SPECIFIC THERAPEUTIC AREAS: PSYCHIATRIC DISEASES Advertising*/standards Australia Drug Industry/methods* Drug Industry/standards Humans Periodicals/standards Physicians/psychology* Psychology Psychotropic Drugs*