Cholesterol(ad journal entry 11)

Keeping with the theme of drug company rhetoric I decided this week I would discuss the commercials for Lipitor and Vytorin; both drugs are used for people with high cholesterol. As you can see for the Lipitor commercial the man in the ad makes a point to mention that he is a doctor and uses Lipitor. So right off the bat the viewer will think, “Well, if a doctor uses this drug then it must work”. Since the beginning of time the doctor has always been someone we can all trust, and the advertisers are feeding off of this concept.

Next is the drug Vytorin, and Vytorin uses a more understandable approach. If you watch both of the Vytorin ads you will see there is a difference. The first one aired prior to the other, and you can tell that the second is a little more creative. Both commercials have the same idea but just updated. When I first saw these ads I actually thought the commercials were really cool and I wanted to see what they would come up with next. One downfall, in my opinion, is that a viewer might just be interest in how much food can take on human characteristics and not that the drug is actually intended for lowering cholesterol. One thing that stuck out was the repetition of “comes from two sources”, so people know that cholesterol comes from both a persons genes and from food.

To compare the two the Lipitor commercial is serious, clam, and has an older gentleman explaining the drug. In the Vytorin commercial the facts are explained in terms someone who doesn’t know much about medicine would understand. The Vytorin ads are also very colorful and use a voice over rather than an actual person telling the viewer about the pill. Both drugs are used for the same reasons but their different advertisement styles will untimely sway a consumer on whether they appreciate a serious doctor or a silly take on cholesterol medicine.

November 27, 2007. Uncategorized.