Application of cognitive principles to the design of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medications

This research sought to determine the formats of direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertisements that would facilitate communication of benefit and risk information. Fictitious DTC advertisements were designed to test the effect of integrated (risk/benefit information presented in a single textual unit) versus separated (risk/benefit information presented in separate, distinct textual units). These two formats were orthogonally combined with the presence or absence of color (red) to distinguish the risk information or the risk information was the same color (black) as the rest of the text. Also included was a fifth condition in which separated risk information was made extremely salient by using an enhanced warning style similar to that advocated by the ANSI Z535 warning standard. Lastly a sixth condition was a control that lacked risk information. The 144 undergraduates and community volunteers who participated were presented 6 DTC advertisements representing 6 design formats embedded within a realistic-looking but fictitious leisure magazine in a repeated measures balanced latin square design. Advertisement effectiveness was determined by measuring performance on a knowledge test of benefit and risk information. Participants also ranked ordered advertisements on the basis of effectiveness of communicating drug uses and risks. Results showed that the presence of physical features that distinguish the risk information from other text facilitated information acquisition and increased the perceived effectiveness ranks. Implications for the design of advertisements for products with potential risks are discussed.