Rick Froman wrote: > Chris Green wrote: "I thought that advertising was, in general, an exercise > in violating Grice's maxims of implicature (e.g., Tell only the good, > emphasize it > and even exaggerate it. Tell none of the drawbacks.)" > > In general this is true with the obvious exception of prescription drug ads. > I sometimes wonder about the effect of reading all that small print aloud and > talking about the possibilities of all kinds of adverse reactions including > death. I realize these are mandated but I wonder if the bump such ads > probably get in perceived trustworthiness really overcomes the obvious > downside of linking your product with possible death. >
The side-effect notices in pharmaceutical ads are mandated by law, and are typically quite perfunctory (tiny print, or very rapidly spoken, no indication of frequency). In fact, pharmaceutical ads are about seem to me to be as bad as any other in terms of breaking implicature maxims. I've just been reading a terrific book called _Know Your Chances: Understanding Health Statistics_ by three doctors: Steven Woloshin, Lisa M Schwartz, and H. Gilber Welch. It is pitched at a very elementary level (would be good for junior undergrads) and it goes through a large number of the misleading tactics used by pharmaceutical companies to flog their products. (One of these is, as I have been hammering away at here over the past few weeks, is using percentages to described the increase of decrease of low-probability events. If you lower something the probability of which is 4 in 10,000 to 2 in 10,000, you can claim a 50% reduction, but it is only a 2 in 10,000 benefit... minus all the hidden costs.) Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ "Censorship is the strongest drive in human nature; sex is a weak second." - Phil Kerby, former editor of the /Los Angeles Times/ ========================== --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
