Direct-to-Consumer Advertising and Its Effect on Prescription Requests

Angela Hausman

Advertising prescription drugs to consumers is becoming increasingly common and expensive - over $3 billion in 2003 - yet the mechanism by which advertising drives requests for prescription drugs remains largely unexplored.

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising and Its Effect on Prescription Requests

Angela HausmanXavier University

INTRODUCTION

Certainly, the role of advertising in positioning a product to ultimately result in product purchase (or purchase intentions) is well established using the attitude-toward-the-advertisement model (Aad) (cf. Mitchell and Olson, 1981). Contextual differences associated with advertising prescription drugs make them sufficiently different from other types of consumer products commonly studied to suggest an investigation of the utility of the Aadmodel is warranted. These contextual differences include intermediation by physicians and insurance carriers, the reported reluctance to request prescription drugs (Peyrot, Alperstein,...

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