Not all marketing is "educating consumers about your product". Some of it is manufacturing a desire for your product.
Look at car ads. Do they say "The new 2019 models are available"? A few do. Do they say "This car gets better gas mileage" or "This car is safer"? A few do. Most say "If you drive this car, you'll get the hot girl". That's not "educating consumers". That's trying to make consumers want your product on the basis of something completely unrelated to your product.
And yes, I fear that marketing pharmaceuticals may in fact not be different from marketing any other product.
A very interesting read for me was an FDA survey on direct to consumer TV ads for drugs.[1]
A few of the negative findings:
-Eight percent of physicians said they felt very pressured to prescribe the specific brand-name drug when asked.
-In addition, about 75 percent of physicians surveyed believed that DTC ads cause patients to think that the drug works better than it does, and many physicians felt some pressure to prescribe something when patients mentioned DTC ads.
And positive findings:
-Many physicians thought that DTC ads made their patients more involved in their health care.
-Most physicians agreed that because their patient saw a DTC ad, he or she asked thoughtful questions during the visit.
-The study demonstrated that when a patient asked about a specific drug, 88 percent of the time they had the condition that the drug treated.
I simply wondered if I could play devil's advocate by looking up some research about men spending money for cars in order to attract women. I mean, most psychologists are men right? Surely, someone had the bright idea to look into this (I wonder if anyone has done it regarding the other way around, I'm too lazy to look it up since I can't play devil's advocate with that). As it turns out, there is research on it!
The introduction is the most juicy bit as the particular article I found is about intra-sex competition but states a few interesting studies in their introduction about being desirable to women.
In short what I skimmed so far related to this idea is:
"And indeed, a man who was seated in a luxury car was perceived
as more attractive by women compared to the same man seated
in a nonluxury car (Dunn & Searle, 2010). Hence, men appear
to use showy spending to attract women in intersexual competition contexts. Sundie et al. (2011) further revealed that men’s
flaunting of luxury goods signals their desirability as a shortterm (rather than long-term) mate."
Personally, I don't car about any of this. However, academically (from an evolutionary psych. view, lol): yes, men are seen as a more desirable mate!
If this conclusion is also actually true (and not subject to whatever ails the field of psychology) then I'd chalk it up to most of humanity being vain and if you want to get vain people you need to be the vainest of them all and get the sports car, the fancy house, other desirable 'high value' women in pictures and all that jazz. Though, why not just immediately go for the private helipad and private jet with built-in Jacuzzi? Nothing attracts as much as offering young people in general a trip around the world in pure luxury! Or so I presume. So don't buy the sports car. Buy the helipad with helicopter on top.
Source
Title: What If the Rival Drives a Porsche? Luxury Car Spending as a Costly Signal in Male Intrasexual Competition
>"And indeed, a man who was seated in a luxury car was perceived as more attractive by women compared to the same man seated in a nonluxury car (Dunn & Searle, 2010).
Surprised the PC Police haven't demolished you for pointing out that, on average, women are attracted to men who convey wealth (even though it's blatantly obvious).
> Personally, I don't car (sic! also no pun intended) about any of this. However, academically (from an evolutionary psych. view, lol): yes, men are seen as a more desirable mate!
So first, I see evolutionary psychology as a joke and I don't care about the research because I think it's all lies anyway. I'm a bitter man when it comes to the promises of psychology being truthful about how humans think (the field has too many issues).
Secondly, I simply quoted research. And remember from point 1, distanced myself from that opinion.
Thirdly, in my experience I never needed to flaunt my wealth in order to attract women. I think the same is true for most if not all of my friends (both sexes). Disclaimer: I'm Dutch (maybe culture is a thing).
> Look at car ads. Do they say "The new 2019 models are available"? A few do. Do they say "This car gets better gas mileage" or "This car is safer"? A few do. Most say "If you drive this car, you'll get the hot girl". That's not "educating consumers". That's trying to make consumers want your product on the basis of something completely unrelated to your product.
You and I must be watching different commercials, because I see far more of the former.
>You and I must be watching different commercials, because I see far more of the former.
I think it's changed a lot since the 60s and 70s. Cars are seen as more utilitarian now, and younger people don't even care about getting their license, let alone being concerned with "what you drive".
Look at car ads. Do they say "The new 2019 models are available"? A few do. Do they say "This car gets better gas mileage" or "This car is safer"? A few do. Most say "If you drive this car, you'll get the hot girl". That's not "educating consumers". That's trying to make consumers want your product on the basis of something completely unrelated to your product.
And yes, I fear that marketing pharmaceuticals may in fact not be different from marketing any other product.