Usability Problems in Consumer-Directed Broadcast Advertisements of Prescription Medicines

Abstract

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act broadly regulates the content of Consumer-Directed Broadcast Advertisements (CDBA). Information processing capabilities of average consumers may be exceeded by broadcast advertisements that present too much information. The purpose of this study was to examine usability problems encountered by viewers of broadcast advertisements and to isolate “best practices” that facilitated information transfer. Two age groups, older and younger viewers, evaluated different prescription drug advertisements based on usability and provided verbal reports to open-ended questions in a focus group. Avoiding information overload, eliminating or reducing distracting stimuli, and slowing the rate at which information is presented are important usability guidelines that should be applied to content specifications.

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