Are DTC TV Ads “Scaring” Patients?
A recent BBC article (“Medicine Information Leaflets ‘Too Scary’ says Experts”) illustrated how word choice and framing of side effects on drug inserts may sway patients towards not taking their medication. But why? The Academy of Medical Sciences report, which the BBC quotes, shares that patients may be confused, anxious, and/or off-put by the current way side effects are labeled “possible” or “serious” with little further explanation.
This got us thinking, how many times have you seen a commercial for a prescription drug (aka a DTC TV Ad) and not noticed the portion that’s dedicated to listing the side effects? Does this medium “scare” patients too?
Ling 101: How to Decode Conversational Roles
Last month we shared with you how certain linguistic methodologies can provide meaningful content to shape your marketing decisions. Now that you know how linguistics can be applied, let’s dive deeper and talk more about the first big idea of discourse analysis.
Discourse analysis at it’s core can be defined as studying the way language is used in context. Instead of just knowing what it is and how discourse analysis can be useful for you, we decided to break it down even further in a mini-series called “Ling 101”. You’re welcome!
Three Conference Tips for Attending Your Next Big Event
How many times have you found yourself at a conference, attending sessions you have no interest in, and then spending most of the night catching up on work? Hopefully, not many but a bad conference experience can happen. Many people find themselves ebbing and flowing through conference highs and lows throughout the day, from networking with high potential clients to waiting for people to visit your booth.
Fortunately, we’ve combined our top three tips and tricks to making it past the lows and focusing on the highs at your next conference.
Solving Your Marketing Problems with Linguistics
When you ask a linguist what the most common question they get asked is, you’re most likely going to hear “how many languages do you speak?” This questions isn’t a bad or wrong question, but it showcases how focused the image of linguistics is to many people. I mean, just take a quick search for “linguistic jobs” and you’ll see many of them are translation/transcription work. This idea is definitely in need of a refresh.
