Semiotic analysis of Indian advertisements for mental illnesses

  • Authors

    • Madhur Mrinal Amity Institute of Public Health, Amity University, Noida, UP
    • Upmesh Kumar Assistant Professor, Deptt of Social Work, M G Central University, Motihari, Bihar,India
    • Sarbjeet Khurana Associate Professor & Head, Department of Epidemiology, IHBAS, Delhi, India
    • Vijender Singh 4. Professor & Head, Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS, Saket, Bhopal, India
    2021-02-19
    https://doi.org/10.14419/jsc.v3i1.31388
  • Mental Illnesses, Advertisement and Mental Health.
  • Paper illuminates semiotic analysis of drug advertising for depression, anxiety and its influences on doctors, patients and consumers’ behavior. Analytic attention is given to visual and linguistic imagery of advertisements in USA, UK and India. This interpretation and its associated myth have been used in drug advertisements to depict effective therapeutic efficacy or effective treatment. Many of us, doctors, patients and care givers in the family should be aware of these myths of drugs claim in the print as well as in visuals of Indian advertisements for mental illnesses.

     

     

     
  • References

    1. [1] Adair, R. F. and Holmgern, L R (2005). Do drug sample influences residents prescribing behavior? A randomized Trial. American Journal of Medicince,118(8):881-884 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.02.031.

      [2] Angell, M (2005). The Truth about the Drug Companies: How Do they Deceive Us and what to do about it? New York: Random House Trade paperback.

      [3] Chern, M. N. and Landerfeld (1994). Physicians’ Behavior and their interaction with drugs companies: A control study of physician who requested addition to a drug formulary. JAMA, 271(9):648-689. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1994.03510330062035.

      [4] Cristina Hanganu-Bresch(2005): Faces of Depression: A Semiotic Analysis of Visual Representations of Depression in American and British Journals, 1960-2004. http://www.fantasypieces.org/dissertation/prospectus.htm (1 of 22)30/05/2005 17:24:19.

      [5] Cristina Hanganu-Bresch(2004). Advertising Depression: The Case of Paxil.http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hanga001/CCCC.htm (1 of 7)28/05/2005 02:29:42.

      [6] Dietrei, J. M. (2007). The Politics of PEPFAR: The President’s Emergency Plan to ADIS and relief. Ethics and International Affairs, 21(3):277-292 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7093.2007.00100.x.

      [7] Ecks, Stefan (2005). Pharmaceutical Citizenship: Antidepressants Marketing and Promises of De-marginalization in India, Anthropology and Medicine, 12;3;239-254; https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470500291360.

      [8] Ecks, S. and S. Basu (2009). The unlicensed lives of antidepressant in India: generic drugs, unqualified practioners and floating perceptions. Trans cultural Psychiatry,46(12):86-106 https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461509102289.

      [9] Huang, A. J. (2000). The Rise of Direct-to-Consumer advertising of prescription drugs in USA. JAMA,284(17):2240 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.284.17.2240-JMS1101-1-2.

      [10] Kleinman, A. (2012) Medical Anthropology and Mental Health: Five Questions for next Fifty years. In M C Inhorn and E A Wentzell (eds) Medical Anthropology at Intersection: Histories, Activisms and Futures pp.116-129. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822395478-008.

      [11] Lakshmi, C. and Selvam, V. (2016). Challenging Stereotypes: A Semiotic Analysis of Indian Advertisements. Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol. 6, No.11, pp. 907-924. https://doi.org/10.5958/2249-7315.2016.01239.9.

      [12] Lexchin J, Mansfield P, Mintzes B, Medawar C, Hamdan Z. (2002). Drug promotion data base: WHO Department of Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy, Health Action International Europe, UniversitiSains Malaysia.www.drugpromo.info/ (updated 2002).

      [13] Mansfield, P. R. (2003). Healthy Skepticism’s new Ad Watch: understanding drug promotion. Med J Aust; 179:644-5. https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05730.x.

      [14] Milli, L. and Kumar, S. V. A. (2016). Semiotic Analysis of Anti-Aging Product Advertisement. Notions Vol. 7 No2. Pp. 1-21.

      [15] Mrinal, Madhur (2019). Visual Representation of Depression: A Semiotic Analysis. Report submitted to Final Year of Graduate programme in major Anthropology, Amity Institute of Anthropology, AUUP, India (unpublished).

      [16] Pattison, N and Warren, L (2003). 2002 Drug Industry profit: hefty pharmaceuticals companies margins dwarf other industries. Public Citizen Congress watch, June, 2003, Washington, DC, Public Citizen.

      [17] Randhawa, Gurpreet Kaur, Navyug Raj Singh, Jaswant Rai, Gobindnoor Kaur, and Resham Kashyap (2015) A Critical Analysis of Claims and Their Authenticity in Indian Drug Promotional Advertisements. Advances in Medicine Volume 2015, Article ID 469147, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/469147.

      [18] Sharma, P, and Priya Gupta (2015). Semiotic analysis of Indian television. advertisements and its impact on consumers: An exploratory study, ESSACHESS - Journal for Communication Studies, vol. 8, pp. 71-90, 2015.https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84937888432&partnerID=40&md5=0aa7945c1ca3946d79888bafdb7aee9d(link is external). Accessed on 14.7.2020

      [19] Sutherland, M. (1993). Advertising and the mind of the consumer: what works, what doesn’t and why? Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1993.

      [20] Tim Scott, Neil Stanford, David R Thompson (2001). Killing me softly: myth in pharmaceutical advertising. BMJ Volume-329, 18-25 December 2004. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1484.

      [21] Wilkes MS, Doblin BH, Shapiro M. (1992). Pharmaceutical advertisements in leading medical journals: experts’ assessments. Annalof Internal Medicine,116:912-9. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-116-11-912.

  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    Mrinal, M., Kumar, U., Khurana, S., & Singh, V. (2021). Semiotic analysis of Indian advertisements for mental illnesses. SPC Journal of Social Sciences, 3(1), 18-27. https://doi.org/10.14419/jsc.v3i1.31388