Psychology of Abilify Commercials

 

The psychology used to make Abilify commercials effective marketing tools is rather remarkable.  The goals for the advertisement are to generate a positive feeling towards the product in the consumer, minimize the effect of negative connotations, and ultimately sell the product.  In this series of commercials, Abilify is being marketed as an additional drug that existing users of antidepressants can take to enhance the effectiveness of the primary drug.  The process begins with the choice of an animated commercial with a very soft color palette.  The pastel colors used in the commercial serve to create a subtle undertone of calmness.  All of the colors are secondary colors rather than primary colors, which are meant to illicit both attention and emotion in the viewer.  The soft colors are in contrast to the primary colors used in most regular programming, which makes the commercial stand out in the broadcast.  In addition, secondary colors also create an emotional state in the viewer that makes the message of the commercial more effective.

The choice of a female narrator serves two purposes.  The majority of antidepressants are prescribed for female patients.  Some estimates claim that 1 in 5 women take an antidepressant.  In addition to marketing the product to the largest consumer base, a female narrator also touches on deep cultural biases concerning the role of women in society.  The traditional role of women in society is as protector and nurturer.  A female narrator touches on these biases to create a sense of safety in the viewer.  The intention is that this sense of safety will be transferred to the product in the mind of the viewer.

Anthropomorphizing depression serves several purposes in the commercials.  Creating a character for depression gives the viewer a way to focus their attention on depression, which is essentially a feeling that normally can’t be easily described.  It also removes depression from the main character, creating the idea that the protector/nurturer is being assailed by an external force.  Using depression as an external force, rather than an internal emotional state, gives the viewer a more concrete focus.  It also reinforces the struggle with depression visually as well as through dialog.  The narrator struggles with this external representation several times in the commercial.  After fighting the depression character, the narrator eventually succumbs, which sets the stage for the authority figure to enter the story.

As the narrator struggles to overcome her depression, a doctor comes and pulls her out of her pit.  Having the doctor save the patient serves to establish him/her as a protective figure and a source of relief for the problems that the narrator is having.  The doctor is also used to discuss the side effects of the drug.  When the doctor discusses side effects, s/he doesn’t do it personally.  Instead, the doctor uses a movie within the cartoon to list side effects.  This serves to remove the side effects from being a primary topic in the commercial.  All of the positive effects of the drug are delivered visually through the cartoon and through direct narration.  Side effects are delivered through a secondary image of the doctor which the doctor, narrator, and depression character watch.  This puts the positive and negative effects of the drug into different categories of awareness for the viewer.  The positive effects are made to be more prominent than the side effects, and minimizes the idea of side effects for the consumer.

This framework is used in several Abilify commercials.  The characters and dialog change, but the essential motif remains the same.  The same psychological methods are used.  It’s not manipulation, per see, but it is carefully designed to create emotion in the viewer rather than facilitate critical thinking.  That is the goal of all advertising, of course.  The difference in this case is that anti psychotics like Abilify were not intended to be used as mild boosters for other antidepressants.  Instead, they were intended to treat chronic and untreatable psychosis.  The way that the effects and side effects of these drugs are trivialized through these commercials is troubling to me.  Instead of prompting a serious discussion between patient and doctor over appropriate treatments, these commercials encourage patients to ask for a specific drug without really understanding the possible effects, positive or negative, of taking it.