Are Direct to Consumer Advertisments of Prescription Drugs Educational?: Comparing 1992 to 2002

Abstract

We investigate the educational value of direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertisements from 58 popular magazines published in 1992 and 2002. We find that the number of DTC prescription drug ads increased nine-fold from 1992 to 2002, while the advertisements for other health care products increased only slightly. We examine changes in 1992–2002 DTC prescription drug ads both quantitatively and qualitatively. We find that the educational value as it relates to serious medical conditions decreases over time based on the media logic that the primary purpose of advertisements is to promote consumption, rather than education. We enumerate and describe the media logic tactics employed, and find a statistically significant increase in the number of such tactics per ad in 2002.