University of Georgia

Cartoons vs. people

University of Georgia researcher Matthew Perri

Viewers were shocked when the first direct-to-consumer commercial for a prescription drug aired in 1983, said Matthew Perri, UGA professor of clinical and administrative pharmacy.

“Prescription drugs on TV were unheard of at the time,” he said.

Now, from prime-time TV to daily newspapers and monthly magazines, ads for pharmaceutical products permeate American media. But these ads are unique to the U.S. and New Zealand, the only two countries where drug advertising is legal.

Perri has conducted dozens of studies analyzing print, television and online direct-to-consumer advertising to provide the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies, among others, with information about the impact of advertising directly to consumers.

“We want to know what works and what doesn’t, what’s misleading and what’s not, what people will do with the information in these ads and the best way to present information,” he said.

Perri has studied the influence of celebrities and coupons on consumers, as well as the influence of branded versus non-branded ads. His most recent study, published in the journal Health Communication, examines consumer perceptions toward animated spokes-characters, such as cartoons.

Cartoons, he said, have the potential “to capture attention much quicker, drawing you in to spend time reading the ad.”

The researchers created two different print ads for a fictitious cholesterol-lowering prescription drug. One version featured an animated spokes-character, “LDL Blob,” while the second had human spokes-characters.

The researchers divided study participants into two groups based on the severity of their condition.

The study found that both groups liked the human spokes-characters much more than the animated ones, suggesting that animated spokes-characters may be ineffective in relaying messages about prescription drugs.

The study also confirmed what other advertising studies have found: individuals with more severe disease processed the ad’s information more thoroughly and formed more positive perceptions of the ad and the company in the ad, thus increasing the likelihood they would ask their physician about the drug.