David Oaks I would like to thank PLoS Medicine for publishing Lacasse and Leo’s important and methodical Essay that debunks the “chemical imbalance” advertisements for psychiatric drugs [1]. Why would the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve such ads? Our human rights group, MindFreedom International, has been asking that question for a long time. On behalf of MindFreedom, U...

After decades of optimistic portrayals, there has been a shift in the way that the popular press represents genomic research. A skeptical view has become more common. The central reason for this pendulum swing away from popular support is the harsh truth that most genetic risk information just isn't that predictive. This reality has created a fascinating policy paradox. If, as many in the scien...

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) DNA testing has grown from contentious beginnings into a global industry, by providing a wide range of personal genomic information directly to its clients. These companies, typified by the well-established 23andMe, generally carry out a gene-chip analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using DNA extracted from a saliva sample. These genetic data are then ass...

A field experiment utilizing a new experimental approach to measuring advertising exposure which provides a range of levels of exposure was conducted in eight main test market and eight fringe cities for a global Fortune 500 company consumer durable product. The results showed: a) targeted rating points of advertising delivered are strongly related to advertising effectiveness, and b) this effe...

Types of Advertisements There are currently several types of DTC drug advertisements (Table 1).5,11 One type is the “help-seeking ad,” which provides only information about a medical condition and encourages patients to contact their physician but doesn’t mention a product.5,11 Another category is the “reminder ad,” which includes the product name; this type may provide information about streng...

This study examines consumer-generated advertising (CGA) impacts on consumer attitudes, and behaviors for interacting with YouTube features and passing along electronic word-of-mouth. An online experiment with 175 subjects was conducted with a 2x2x2 factorial design. Participants viewed a video advertisement on YouTube, framed as either a consumer-generated or firm-generated advertisement, to d...

This paper presents the computational model of consumer behaviour. We consider two sources of product specic consumer skill acquisition, termed here as learning how to consume: learning by consuming and consumer socialization. Consumers utilize these two sources in order to derive higher valuations for products they are consuming. In this framework we discuss the behavior of returns to product ...

We investigate the relationship between both advertising content and quantity and several stages of consumers’ decision-making, namely, unaided and aided awareness, search (consideration), and purchase. Understanding how the amount and content of advertisements affect consumers’ decision-making is crucial for companies to effectively and efficiently use their advertising budgets. Our unique ind...

An important decision for a firm is how to allocate its advertising budget among different types of advertising. Most traditional channels of advertising, such as advertising on television and in print, serve the purpose of building consumer awareness and desire about the firm’s products. With recent developments in technology, sponsored search (or paid search) advertising at search engines in ...

We develop a structural model to analyze the effects of banning advertising on demand, supply and market equilibria in junk food markets. We use transaction level data on the potato chips market and find that banning advertising does not lead to a reduction in demand because, while banning advertising reduces consumers’ taste for junk food, it also toughens price competition, leading to lower p...