August 1997 target audience by Leslie Harpold |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
...And then You Die
Disturbing isn't it? There's been so much in the media about Prozac both
good and bad, but still, it continues to assert it's position as the number
one growth drug available by prescription. That means that more people are
taking Prozac every day.
I realize that some people have problems, chemical imbalances, serotonin
deficiencies that make them lack the regular range and scope of human
emotion. I don't begrudge them wanting to find a way out. What bugs me
though, is this ad, and it bugs me plenty, so excuse me if I kick it Ed
Anger style for a minute here.
Depressed?
Yeah, I'm depressed. I'm depressed that there are thousands and thousands
of people who will view this ad and think that Prozac will make them feel
better - whether or not there's anything physically wrong with them.
Depression isn't just feeling down...it's a real illness with real causes...
It's not your fault your life sucks.
Depression can be triggered by stressful life events, like
divorce or a death in the family. Or it can appear suddenly for no apparent
reason.
Ever get that not so fresh feeling? Get dumped? General malaise?
Some people think you can just will yourself out of a
depression, that's not true....
You'll need to give us some money before that depressed feeling goes away.
Oh, and it's not your fault, you poor thing.
So you may have trouble sleeping. Feel unusually sad or
irritable. Find it hard to concentrate. Lose your appetite. Lack energy.
Just in case your attention span is lacking, we kept the sentences short.
Really short. Really. Are you feeling sleepy, dopey, grumpy, mopey,
listless, cranky or shot? (That being a kind of a "seven dwarves" of
emotions for the new generation.) Prozac will make you tall and vital again.
Or have trouble feeling pleasure.
Last time I had trouble feeling pleasure I changed boyfriends, and let me
tell you it worked wonders.
...Prozac isn't a "happy pill."
Then why are they advertising it as such. The first visual take on the
whooping two page ad is that if things are dark and gloomy, a little Prozac
will cheer you right up - change your internal weather from dark to light,
night to day and give you a whole new leash on life. This ad doesn't speak
to the truly chemically depressed, and they're kidding us if they try to
tell us that. This ad has been in Newsweek, Time, People, and fashion
magazines, not medical magazines for doctors who have patients with
problems, but national consumer publications - so anyone who sees this and
thinks "hmm, I'm not as sunny and cheerful as I'd like to be, and I'm still
feeling a little bummed about the breakup/parking ticket/change of 'large
collection day' from Thursday to Saturday," is going to think, is
supposed to think "maybe some Prozac will change all that."
It won't. As a matter of fact, one of the dangers of the drug is that it
has shown to have little effect on people who don't have a serotonin
imbalance. That means that there are plenty of people pestering their
family physician for Prozac, getting it and psyching themselves back to
feeling better. Or wondering why the hell they don't.
On the second page of the ad, they stress the drug is not a cure all, and list the vast side
effects, which include, I might add, some of the symptoms that would
indicate it's prescription like sleeplessness.
I know people who are ready at any time to do infomercials for Prozac. One
girl, because she finally lost that last 15 pounds, although when pressed
she admits she doesn't feel any less depressed than before. Another
because he now feels like he has something in common with all the
neurotic freaks at his work place. He tells me they all go out to lunch
and talk about Prozac once a week. If it takes faking mental illness and
daily ingestion of a drug you don't need to make friends in today's world,
I think I missed a meeting. Developing an interest or reading the paper
seems like a much more logical and frankly, less expensive choice.
They tell you in the text it won't take away all your problems, but the
visual language contradicts that, and most people don't really read the
fine print. I say this ad is dangerous. A beautiful execution of
capitalism, but still as exploitive as any spread eagled supermodel
sprawled across the roof of a minivan could be. Clearly, the Lilly people
are trying to tell you that the sun rises and sets only for those who take
Prozac, and see, the logo says that too.
And their tag line "Welcome back." Like the theme song from "Welcome Back Kotter" where your dreams were your ticket out. Only when you take Prozac, you might not have any dreams anymore. Welcome back to what?
in the junk drawer:
July 1997
|
|
