Every parent knows the pitfalls of Saturday morning cartoons and the commercials plastered between cartoons. As a parent, you can count on your children coming and extolling the latest greatest breakfast cereal or toy and adamant about getting it. With my children, I counter with lessons about Madison Avenue advertising and the massive amounts of money they sink into finding out what will appeal to the consumer and how to appeal to them. For children, advertisers sell fun.

Researchers took a good hard look at the advertisements for oncology drugs appearing in cancer magazines and found them to be a bit misleading. It does make sense if you are trying to sell a product that you would emphasis the benefits and minimize the less attractive aspects of the product when advertising them, but these products are drugs and not toys or breakfast cereals, and the impression can lead the consumer to believing something that simply isn't true. For cancer patients, advertisers sell hope.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute first noticed that the benefits of the drug appear in large text while the side effects and risks appear in smaller text. According to the researchers conclusion, the ads are designed in such a way that the consumer might not appreciate the dangers of the drug. There was a time when prescription drug makers did not advertise, in the same way lawyers did not advertise. Of course, we are so bombarded each day with prescription drug advertisements that I doubt many of us can remember when advertising directly to the consumer wasn't the norm. I am certain doctors everywhere are seeing patients each and every day come in and request a drug because they saw it advertised by the drug company wanting to sell more of the drug. In this study, the magazines that were analyzed were CURE, Coping with Cancer and MAMM.