“To our knowledge, no studies have comprehensively examined how animation affects consumers’ benefit and risk perceptions in drug ads, how various animation strategies (e.g., symbolizing the disease vs. the benefit) influence these perceptions, and whether these effects are generalizable across different patient populations,” the FDA wrote in a notice to the Federal Register, according to the report.
The two studies will involve a total of 1,500 participants and examine whether or not animated drug ads obscure consumers’ ability to remember important safety and side effect information, which pharmaceutical companies are required to include in ads. As part of the experiments, a professional advertising firm will create a series of TV commercials for fictitious drugs to treat psoriasis and chronic dry eye and present them to patients diagnosed with those conditions, according to the report.
One ad series, presented to the control group, will feature live human actors, while the other will involve different types of animation, including humans who transform into cartoons and non-human animations that symbolize the patient, disease or benefits of a medication.
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