Direct to Consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs is an argument that is important to me. I am a marketing major, so advertising is very interesting to me. The advertisers are tricking consumers into thinking they need a medication when they haven’t been consulted from their physician. This all started in 1997 when the FDA relaxed their rules on use of broadcast media to advertise prescription drugs to consumers. This gave way to the advertisers to start making commercials or even printed ads that persuade people they need a certain drug to fix a condition that they may or may not have. Also, these drugs have side effects that can be worse than what the condition is in the first place. For example, Zoloft is used as an antidepressant, but it has been known to cause children, teenagers, and even adults to become suicidal. Instead of treating the condition of depression, the prescription drug made the condition even worse, and possibly deadly. Not all consumers have a condition, but the way these advertisers display the condition on screen makes people believe that they have something. So at the end of the day, direct to consumer advertising is bad for society. Everyone needs to be aware of this, and something needs to be changed.
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