Effect of presentation modality in direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug television advertisements

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising markets medications requiring a physician's script to the general public. In television advertising, risk disclosures (such as side effects and contraindications) may be communicated in either auditory (voice) or visual (text) or both in the commercials. This research examines presentation modality factors affecting the communication of the risk disclosures in DTC prescription drug television commercials. The results showed that risk disclosures presented either visually only or both visually and auditorily increased recall and recognition compared to no presentation. Risk disclosures presented redundantly in both the visual and auditory modalities produced the highest recall and recognition. Visual only produced better performance than auditory only. Simultaneous presentation of non-risk information together with risk disclosures produced lower recall and recognition compared to risk disclosures alone—without concurrent non-risk information. Implications for the design of DTC prescription drug television commercials and other audio-visual presentations of risk information including on the Internet, are discussed.