He said the codes represent a self-regulatory tool to screen ad content. A test of these guidelines might also be expected to show evidence of whether self-regulation is functioning on OTC drug advertising or not, inasmuch as the National Association of Broadcasters Code was abolished in 1982, he said. His findings suggest that OTC drug ads tend to focus on what the drug will do for the consumer, rather than on the reasons why the drug should be ingested. He believes advertising strategy is centered on consumer awareness of the product as the primary goal. Educational commitment did not seem to be blended into promotional efforts for OTC drugs.
Findings reveal that drug images have been distorted.
Performance of most drugs has been portrayed to be simple resolutions to relieve the symptom a casual at titude toward drug usage is encouraged in the commercials, while time lapse of drug effects is overlooked. To code verbal and visual messages, he considered four variables. His count of information cues indicates TV ads score poorly in the informative category. He counted other cues performance, ingredients, quality, taste and found that of those sampled most TV ads have only two. Those information cues that rarely appeared in TV ads were drug research, medical rationale, guarantees, price, adverse effects, safety and special offers.