Essay #3

Katie Munson

Professor Sessolo

Writing 100

14 Nov. 2015

One of the major reasons why researchers believe that stimulant medications are overprescribed is because of persuasive advertisements. Multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies are advertising their medications through commercials, billboards, etc. These advertisements emphasize the positive outcomes of treating ADHD and downplay possible dangerous side effects. Many appeals are used, which make the ads very effective in persuading readers to take a stimulant medication.

Shire Pharmaceuticals, the producer of Adderall, composed this advertisement about Adderall, a very popular medication used to treat ADHD. According to pleasehealthyourself.com, there was a steady increase in the number of prescriptions of Adderall from 1991-2010. The ad was published in July 2005, at a time when Adderall dominated nearly half of the market for stimulant medications. The ad was published in the New York Times, a left-wing newspaper.

This ad targets parents of children with ADHD and also parents who think their child might have ADHD. This ad is trying to persuade parents that their children might have ADHD and that medication is the best way to deal with this issue.

The purpose of the ad is to convince parents that ADHD is becoming more and more prevalent among children and adolescents. This will invoke fear in the parents and make them consider the possibility that their child also has ADHD. Several advertisements for stimulants will play on the fears of these parents to persuade them to medicate their children.

In order to appeal to parents, the ad uses many rhetorical appeals, strategically incorporated into the ad in order to convey a convincing argument for why Adderall should be used to treat ADHD.

The ad in question, which is used to play on the fears of parents, is shown below. The ad encourages parents to treat their children with Adderall through many persuading appeals. According to diffen.com, in 2013 Adderall was the top ADHD drug on the market. By this time, Adderall had already established its credibility in treating ADHD because it was the most commonly used stimulant. Adderall was highly respectable when the ad was published and the ad includes information that proves the effectiveness and safety of Adderall. The bottom of the ad reads “Adderall XR has been evaluated for safety in over 20 clinical studies.” This sentence comforts the reader and ensures them that Adderall XR must be safe to take because it has been tested multiple times. Because the medicine has been involved in several studies, people will believe the chances are very unlikely that it will cause any harm. Also, the ad includes a bolded and highlighted sentence, “Doctors trust Adderall XR, the most prescribed brand of ADHD medication.” At the time of publication of this ad, most people knew that Adderall was one of the most prescribed stimulant medications.

The ad still includes the statement above because it reminds the public that it is safe to take Adderall because doctors trust it. By including the trust of professionals, Adderall builds credibility and persuades the audience to consider Adderall. Finally, the ad says that it “shares a 65-year history of clinical research.” Because the medication has been tested over a long time span, people will feel better knowing that others have been taking the medicine and no major negative repercussions have arisen. Adderall enhances its credibility by demonstrating longevity and expertise.

In addition, the ad arranges words and images in a sensible way to make Adderall seem like the most desirable solution to ADHD. At the very top of the ad, Adderall distinguishes who its audience is, “parents of children with ADHD.” This statement is effective in directly addressing the parents who have children with ADHD while also making other parents wonder if their child has ADHD. The large image of the happy child holding his well-graded test and hugging his mom is strategically placed right in the center of the ad. It immediately pulls in the audience because it is a very comforting image. When the audience sees this happy image of a parent and a child, they wonder how they can form a good relationship with their child, too. They find the answer to this by looking just below the picture where “Adderall XR” is bolded. The ad is implying that if you take Adderall, you can become as happy as the mom and child. The large, happy image in the middle of the page distracts from the “Important Safety Information” in the lower left corner. The information is in very fine print because it tells of the negative side effects of taking Adderall. By making this information very small and at the bottom of the page, the reader is not inclined to pay attention to it. The ad also includes statistics that show the positive aspects of taking Adderall. For instance, it was mentioned earlier that Adderall “shares a 65-year history of clinical research.” Because many people have taken this medicine throughout this time span, this statement not only enhances the credibility of the medication, but also proves the safety of it. The audience can infer that because the medicine has been tested for 65 years, any problems with it must have been worked out. By organizing the words and images in a way that makes sense to the audience, the creators of the ad have succeeded in making Adderall appear to be a desirable form of treatment for ADHD.

The ad is also effective because the images and words comfort the audience, therefore persuading them to buy Adderall. The happy image of the mom and child induces positive and hopeful emotions in the audience. The reader is persuaded to believe that they can be happy too if they medicate their child with Adderall. Many statements are included that play on the fears of parents so that they are encouraged to treat their child. For example, “schoolwork that matches his intelligence” is used to scare parents into believing that their child will not do well in school unless they take this medication. Also, “family hours that last for hours” and “friends that ask him to join the group” are meant to play on common fears of parents of children with ADHD. Many children with ADHD are known to have social difficulties, so the ad succeeds in comforting parents who are worried about the social issues of their children. The advertisement uses emotional images and words to connect to the reader and to persuade them that treating their child with Adderall will have positive effects.

While the ad demonstrates that pharmaceutical ads are designed to mislead their audience, a second source, from the Psychiatric Times, provides additional evidence . It suggests there is “potential for DTCA [direct-to-consumer advertising] to affect public health negatively and to increase health care costs.” This article, Consumer Advertisements for Psychostimulants in the United States, states that many claims made in Adderall advertisements have “exaggerated the positive impact of this medication as measured by scientific evidence.” The author’s opinion expresses the common belief that “the policies, practices, and advocacy of the medical profession should clearly demonstrate a preference for evidence-based information over commercial advertising.”

To conclude, the marketing techniques of pharmaceutical companies are persuading many people to buy their medications. The rapid increase in the number of Adderall prescriptions is due in part to the effective advertising that companies use.

Works Cited

Adderall XR. Advertisement. New York Times, July 2005. Web.

Lacasse, Jeffrey and Jonathan Leo. “Consumer Advertisements for Psychostimulants.”

Psychiatric Times. 26 Feb. 2009. Web. 14 Nov. 2015.

Total Number of Prescriptions. Graph. n.p., n.d. Web.

2013 Top ADHD Drugs. Chart. n.p., n.d. Web.