Older adults' perceptions and understanding of direct-to-consumer advertising.

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate older consumers' perceptions of the effects of direct‐to‐consumer advertising (DTCA), their views on the amount and type of information that should be provided, and their understanding of information typically contained.Design/methodology/approach – Participants were 97 adult members of a social/education group, aged 55 to 87, who completed a questionnaire during the group's usual weekly meeting. There were four versions of the questionnaire; two types of medication (arthritis versus diabetes) and two ad formats (short versus long).Findings – There was little difference between the versions in the accuracy of participants' recall of key pieces of information, suggesting that providing additional information may convey little additional benefit. Participants reported limited perceived benefits of DTCA, and expressed concern that DTCA may cause people to ask their doctor for inappropriate medicines, rely more on medicines to solve their health, and become more confus...

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