Advertising as Technology

And the marketing of psychiatric drugs

Rank’s Model of Persuasion

• Intensify/Downplay Schema• Emphasise: to something MORE obvious

• Downplay: To make something LESS obvious

Persuaders can choose to:

• Emphasise their own good points.

• Emphasise the weak points of their competition or opponents.

• Downplay their own bad points.

• Downplay the good points of their opponents or competition.

Three techniques of Emphasis

• Repetition

• Association

• Composition

Repetition

• The repeated use of certain words (“Just do it”).

• Ad campaigns such as the Fido ads.

Association

• To link your product or ideas with something the audience already likes.

• To link the product or ideas of your opponent’s with something the audience already dislikes.

Association: Joe Camel to Joe Chemo

Composition

• Changing the way the message looks to emphasize your good points or your opponent’s bad points.

U$A

Three Techniques to Downplay

• Omission

• Diversion

• Confusion

Omission

• This is when you do not mention your opponent’s good points or fail to mention your own weaknesses.

Diversion

• To distract attention from your negative points, or your opponents good points.

• Ad Hominem arguments (against the man)

• Humor

Confusion

• To confuse your audience by using technical language to downplay your weaknesses or a competitor’s strengths.

Marketing & Psychiatry

• Ads

• Marketing budgets

• Cost of drugs

• The marketing of Paxil

From the American Journal of Psychiatry

• Ads directed at psychiatrists. Look for:

• Repetition

• Association

• Composition

• Omisson

• Diversion

• Confusion

Financial statements for:

Eli LillyEli Lilly

GlaxoSmithKlineGlaxoSmithKline

&

Eli Lilly

• R & D is 19 % of annual sales

• Marketing is 31 % of annual sales

• The marketing budget is nearly twice as much as R & D. (4,284 to 2,691)

GlaxoSmithKline

• R&D is 13 % of sales

• Marketing is 35 % of sales

• The marketing budget is 2.5 times bigger than R & D. (£7,061 to £2,839)

Eli Lilly makes

Cialis

20 mg X (4 pills) = $49.05

Zyprexa

7.5 mg X (100) = $525

10 mg X (100) = $729

5 mg X (100 pills) = $370

Prozac

And of course ...

100 Pills

$198.88

GlaxoSmithKline makes:

Paxil

100 Pills

$193

Paxil: “Your Life is Waiting.”

“Every marketer's dream is to find an unidentified or unknown market and develop it. That's what we were able to do with social anxiety disorder”

--Marketer, Barry Brand

www.paxil.com