Advertising Makes Me Sick. And Well.

Want proof that advertising works? Get sick.

You know the placebo effect: Give someone a sugar pill that claims to strengthen their hair, and the next thing you know they’re opening beer cans with their ponytail.

The nocebo effect is the opposite. You give someone a sugar pill and tell them it makes their hair fall out, they look like Sir Ben Kingsley in 72 hours.

This stuff is for real. In one recent study, a group of people were told that a placebo would induce vomiting; 80 percent of them threw up.

What does this have to do with marketing? Well, for one thing, increasing instances of the placebo/nocebo effect are literally living proof that consumer advertising still works.

In 1980, 30 percent of depressed people given a placebo improved without any other treatment. In 2000, it was 44 percent. The reason? Heightened expectations and widespread faith due to intense advertising.

But this advertising is may be slowing down as congress goes after pharma companies to clean up their direct-to-consumer advertising. Check it out in BrandWeek.