Abilify Ad: A Medication for Depression

Today, depression affects “more than 21 million American children and adults annually and is the leading cause of disability in the United States for individuals ages 15 to 44,” according to Mental Health America. There are numerous drugs that help curb the detrimental effects of this condition, but this commercial advertises Abilify®. This advertisement incorporates several rhetorical tools, such as pathos, logos, and ethos, to make the argument that Abilify® will help depressed Americans become happier more often than when not taking this medication. But, they explicitly state that the drug must be taken concurrently with an anti-depressant medication to be effective.

First of all, the advertisement is in the form of a cartoon. This elicits pathos from the audience because messages in the form of cartoons are not taken as seriously as if the commercial featured real actors. The advertisement uses cartoons to scale down the severity of depression so that the advertisement is not too solemn and mundane, since generally, positive thoughts and emotions are associated with viewing cartoons. For instance, I felt sympathetic for the cartoon portraying a mother having depression, but I didn’t feel as sad as I would be if it was being portrayed by a real person. I think that people need to see a human face of depression to feel sad, so the ad does a great job of reducing the severity of this condition and evoking feelings of sympathy rather than sadness. Furthermore, evocation of pathos is intended when the character is describing her day-to-day struggles with depression. Her floating black bubble represents her looming depression, and it takes many forms throughout the commercial to represent what the depression does to her. For instance, the bubble will turn into a ball and chain on days that she struggles with her depression or it will be a balloon when she manages to put a smile on and successfully “meddle through the day.” Consumers feel condolingly towards this mother with the ball and chain that is restricting how she is living her life because of depression. Then, of course, the smiling doctor pulls her out of her hole (which was what her depression transformed into) to inform her of Abilify®. At the end of the commercial, the character is having an outdoor picnic with her family. This scene attempts to reach those potential consumers that have families and do not want their daily lives to be negatively impacted by their depression.

Secondly, logos are present when the doctor instructs her on the benefits and side effects of using Abilify®. He states that in a six-week trial some people improved their symptoms “in early as one to two weeks.” Also, the scene where the doctor is explaining the drug on a projector screen while the woman is taking notes can be an appeal to logos. The professional manner with which this scene is occurring illustrates the importance of knowing the side effects of using Abilify®. Another detail that strengthens the persuasion of the advertisement is the use of distractions. The ad would be verbally saying a side effect, but the side effect will also be visible to read on the screen in a different wording than was used when it was verbally described. For example, during a particular scene in the ad the screen displayed “your blood sugar should be monitored,” while at the exact same time the narrator was saying “high blood sugar has been reported with Abilify®." This made it slightly difficult to focus on the actual side effect because you were trying to hear what was being said while reading what was on the screen. The lack of concentration on one single side effect had the tendency to reduce the severity of the side effect.

Lastly, I believe ethos was present but lacking in this commercial because credibility was hard to deduce from an animated advertisement. The side effects being described by a cartoon doctor on a projector screen while the woman took notes showed that the makers of Abilify® care about providing the information of the side effects to their buyers. Also, there were logos representing the corporations and labs that helped create this advertisement at the end to confirm the legitimacy of the drug and the information. By providing a website and phone number, the credibility of the drug heightened because potential consumers have the chance to locate pertinent information on Abilify®.

To reiterate, the use of rhetorical appeals in this advertisement was somewhat ineffective to viewers because of the numerous side effects, with some being quite serious and dangerous, and the presence of depression still at the end after the woman took Abilify®. But the advertisement does maintain that realistic concept that depression will not simply be cured with one medication, but that by taking this drug, it can definitely be managed better than when the depression was literally weighing down the woman. So this ad might be effective for consumers with severe depression that have found no medications to help manage their depression and are willing to take the risk of experiencing these side effects.