Neuroscience
NOTE: After composing this post yesterday I discovered Vaughan at Mind Hacks wrote about the very same thing five days before, independently. It's great that Vaughan and I share some interests and an instinct for news; he's an excellent writer and one of my fave bloggers. But – d'oh! I'm just posting this now to offer a few more perspectives. Nice post, Vaughan. :-P
Modern consumer pharmaceutical advertising is a popular and heated subject. Zoloft's blob is a cultural icon and ad parodies represent public reaction to marketing, but also surrounding mental health stigma, medical practice, and conflicting social values.
Vintage drug ads also reveal attitudes, practices and opinions (though I wonder what satirists of the times made of them). One trumpets "Mabel is unstable" and recommends barbiturates for menopause. Imagine the kerfuffle if you placed those in a modern consumer magazine! Advertising has reacted to social change and sometimes, as with the Zoloft ad, has sparked dialogue. What lessons could sociologists and marketers glean from online parodies, far beyond the official campaigns?
The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Art hosts print ads targeting Japanese psychiatrists in medical journals, 1956-2003. Gentle and inspiring to peculiar and surreal, my favourite are the series of haloperidol ads. Infamous first generation antipsychotic haloperidol (sold in Japan as Serenace® and Brotpon®, commonly known as Haldol®). Eerie images depict scenes such as a skulking man under a giant hand reaching from the sky to grab him while empty eye masks fly in the air, and other creative paranoia imagery.
Some ads were quite evocative and timeless, such as the diazepam (Cercine®) [Valium®] poster depicting neon numbers glowing in the dark, progressively blurrier. I really wonder about the Electric Hypnotic Machine photo, though.
Vintage Ads: Drugs displays vintage American advertising. Layouts for Thorazine® as "one of the fundamental drugs in medicine" to control the "tyrant in the house", Nembutol® for toddlers, and major tranquilizer Butibarbitol® for "'that time' in her life" seem humorous and sweetly naïve, but maybe not so innocent.
Omni Brain is scouting to form a team of neurobloggers to rule the internets. Be one of us.
Tags: ad parodies vintage ads marketing psychiatry
- Hey Hey Kids!
Vaughan from Mind Hacks has compiled a very useful list of essential websites for mind and brain students. Whether you're a future graduate psychologist, a hardened lab-based neuroscientist or are in the midst of studying any of the cognitive sciences,...
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No, this entry is not an announcement that David Gahan uses Viagra, but a pointer to a series of articles in PLoS Medicine on the phenomenon of "disease mongering." Some of the diseases mongered include ADHD, bipolar disorder, erectile dysfunction, and...
- Upcoming Event: Los Angeles, 31 July - 03 August 2005
From the University of Southern California website: US-Japan Conference on Drug Development and Rational Drug Design - Pathways of Innovative Drug Targeting: From a Molecular to Clinical Perspective This conference represents the 3rd Conference on Drug...
- Antipsychotic Medications
The new issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal includes a review article of modern and older antipsychotic medications. The article is available in free, full-content format. David M. Gardner, Ross J. Baldessarini, and Paul Waraich. Modern...
- Disclosure Of Clinical Trials: Ongoing Debate
Today's New York Times provides a report about the ongoing debate concerning clinical-trials findings and the ability to balance favorable against unfavorable findings in an environment where unfavorable findings do not easily come to the fore: Expected...
Neuroscience
Vintage pharmaceutical ads
NOTE: After composing this post yesterday I discovered Vaughan at Mind Hacks wrote about the very same thing five days before, independently. It's great that Vaughan and I share some interests and an instinct for news; he's an excellent writer and one of my fave bloggers. But – d'oh! I'm just posting this now to offer a few more perspectives. Nice post, Vaughan. :-P
Modern consumer pharmaceutical advertising is a popular and heated subject. Zoloft's blob is a cultural icon and ad parodies represent public reaction to marketing, but also surrounding mental health stigma, medical practice, and conflicting social values.
Vintage drug ads also reveal attitudes, practices and opinions (though I wonder what satirists of the times made of them). One trumpets "Mabel is unstable" and recommends barbiturates for menopause. Imagine the kerfuffle if you placed those in a modern consumer magazine! Advertising has reacted to social change and sometimes, as with the Zoloft ad, has sparked dialogue. What lessons could sociologists and marketers glean from online parodies, far beyond the official campaigns?
The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Art hosts print ads targeting Japanese psychiatrists in medical journals, 1956-2003. Gentle and inspiring to peculiar and surreal, my favourite are the series of haloperidol ads. Infamous first generation antipsychotic haloperidol (sold in Japan as Serenace® and Brotpon®, commonly known as Haldol®). Eerie images depict scenes such as a skulking man under a giant hand reaching from the sky to grab him while empty eye masks fly in the air, and other creative paranoia imagery.
Some ads were quite evocative and timeless, such as the diazepam (Cercine®) [Valium®] poster depicting neon numbers glowing in the dark, progressively blurrier. I really wonder about the Electric Hypnotic Machine photo, though.
Vintage Ads: Drugs displays vintage American advertising. Layouts for Thorazine® as "one of the fundamental drugs in medicine" to control the "tyrant in the house", Nembutol® for toddlers, and major tranquilizer Butibarbitol® for "'that time' in her life" seem humorous and sweetly naïve, but maybe not so innocent.
Omni Brain is scouting to form a team of neurobloggers to rule the internets. Be one of us.
Tags: ad parodies vintage ads marketing psychiatry
- Hey Hey Kids!
Vaughan from Mind Hacks has compiled a very useful list of essential websites for mind and brain students. Whether you're a future graduate psychologist, a hardened lab-based neuroscientist or are in the midst of studying any of the cognitive sciences,...
- I Just Can't Get Enough, I Just Can't Get It Up
No, this entry is not an announcement that David Gahan uses Viagra, but a pointer to a series of articles in PLoS Medicine on the phenomenon of "disease mongering." Some of the diseases mongered include ADHD, bipolar disorder, erectile dysfunction, and...
- Upcoming Event: Los Angeles, 31 July - 03 August 2005
From the University of Southern California website: US-Japan Conference on Drug Development and Rational Drug Design - Pathways of Innovative Drug Targeting: From a Molecular to Clinical Perspective This conference represents the 3rd Conference on Drug...
- Antipsychotic Medications
The new issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal includes a review article of modern and older antipsychotic medications. The article is available in free, full-content format. David M. Gardner, Ross J. Baldessarini, and Paul Waraich. Modern...
- Disclosure Of Clinical Trials: Ongoing Debate
Today's New York Times provides a report about the ongoing debate concerning clinical-trials findings and the ability to balance favorable against unfavorable findings in an environment where unfavorable findings do not easily come to the fore: Expected...