Anxiety Disorders: Advertisement Analysis

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States. It affects 40 million adults, aging 18 and older, accounting for 18% of the population. (Facts & Statistics, 2010) Anxiety is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physiological signs, such as sweating, tension, and increased pulse, by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self-doubt about one's capacity to cope with it. (Anxiety, 2015) Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and can actually be beneficial in some situations. However, for some people, anxiety can become excessive and difficult to control. This in turn negatively affects their day-to-day lives. There
The television media doesn’t emphasize the topic of anxiety as much as social media and other media outlets on the internet. When the television media talks about anxiety, they usually categorize it as a symptom of depression. In these advertisements, depression is a disease that needs to be controlled with an anti-depressant. The ads usually target adults, but show that anxiety and depression can directly affect family members and friends. The main focus of the advertisement is on the pill and its side effects, rather than the disorder itself. For example, Zoloft is a popular anti-depressant that helps with anxiety and depression. In the Zoloft ad, they talk about statistics in America and the chemical reactions in the brain that effect one’s mood. However, it focuses more on the pill rather than the disease. Most anti-depressant ads are like this, and these are the only ads on television that talk about anxiety. Collectively, the issue of anxiety are not appropriately met in these ads, which make them ineffective. They don’t raise awareness of anxiety disorders, it only provides a type solution of the
As of August 2015, Facebook has reported over 1.18 billion monthly active users. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is a site where users can create a user profile, add other users as "friends", exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share videos, use various apps and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. (Facebook, 2010) One of the groups people can like on Facebook is called "attn:”. ATTN: is a company that informs and empowers the next generation to make a social impact. Its content pursues everyday media platforms, news articles and videos that cover important societal topics, such as economic mobility, civil rights, education as well as incorporative meaningful calls-to-action. ATTN: has a separate website from Facebook, but other forms of social media such as Twitter and Instagram to promote their company. The company has created a recent video and posted it to their Facebook page on February 19th saying, "We need to face the epidemic of anxiety disorders in America". In the video, the topic of anxiety is talked about and it states that America is the most anxious country in the world because people are constantly trying to reach the "American Dream". At the end of the video there is a call-to-action where it asks to share the video with friends to spread