Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
JOSEPH COWAN: Health advertising is very, very
useful for consumers.
It's very relevant because it's exactly what they want.
They are asking for information on the spot for
whatever consideration they're attempting to learn this piece
of information.
They tend to go to the doctor rarely.
It's very difficult to get people just to do a yearly
appointment for their physical.
I know personally a lot of people who simply can't be
taken to the doctor and will not go.
They will put it off, put it off, put it off.
With search, with a lot of other digital media, it gives
them the opportunity to go out and look and hear people who
have a particular illness or a concern that's similar to what
they're asking or sometimes exactly what they're asking.
They hear this person saying you're all right.
It's OK for you to go to talk to the doctor about this.
You're not being a fraidy cat.
You're not blowing things out of proportion.
If they go out and search, they can find out information
that they might feel embarrassed about talking to
the doctor because they feel like they're stupid.
If they're looking at the internet and doing this,
they're learning that information
at their own speed.
They're able to go back and relisten to it, reread the
information, make themselves aware.
I think that this allows for an empowered person who goes
in and talks to the doctor about their illness, and
doesn't just sit like they did in the previous generations
where the doctor was almost God.
You would go in and this is the person that
you listened to.
You didn't talk to them.
I think now people go in and they've got a much bigger
knowledge base on what it is that they want to talk to the
doctor about, and this helps them.