Anxiety Disorders: Advertisement Analysis

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States. It affects 40 million adults, aging 18 and older, accounting for 18% of the population. (Facts & Statistics, 2010) Anxiety is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physiological signs, such as sweating, tension, and increased pulse, by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self-doubt about one's capacity to cope with it. (Anxiety, 2015) Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and can actually be beneficial in some situations. However, for some people, anxiety can become excessive and difficult to control. This in turn negatively affects their day-to-day lives. There
are a wide variety of anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and specific phobias to name a few. Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, yet only about one-third of those suffering receive treatment. (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015)
Anxiety is the most common amongst Americans, but not commonly talked about.
The television media doesn’t emphasize the topic of anxiety as much as social media and other media outlets on the internet. When the television media talks about anxiety, they usually categorize it as a symptom of depression. In these advertisements, depression is a disease that needs to be controlled with an anti-depressant. The ads usually target adults, but show that anxiety and depression can directly affect family members and friends. The main focus of the advertisement is on the pill and its side effects, rather than the disorder itself. For example, Zoloft is a popular anti-depressant that helps with anxiety and depression. In the Zoloft ad, they talk about statistics in America and the chemical reactions in the brain that effect one’s mood. However, it focuses more on the pill rather than the disease. Most anti-depressant ads are like this, and these are the only ads on television that talk about anxiety. Collectively, the issue of anxiety are not appropriately met in these ads, which make them ineffective. They don’t raise awareness of anxiety disorders, it only provides a type solution of the
illness.
A popular internet media outlet is YouTube. YouTube was founded in 2005 by Steven Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim and is used worldwide. The website allows users to upload, view, rate, share and comment on videos, and it’s user-friendly for all types of media videos. Available content includes video clips, TV clips, music videos, movie trailers and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. (YouTube, 2010) When searching for videos on anxiety, there were a great deal of short videos and public service announcements (PSAs) from other countries. It was surprising to not see any big-time ads from the United States on the issue of anxiety. However, there were helpful clips of students who made PSAs about anxiety. Most videos contained information on anxiety and mostly targets young adults. In the videos, young adults and teenagers talked about what happens during their anxiety attacks, how they got help and where to get help. One example of a video on YouTube is called Social Anxiety PSA. In this video, it has an influential song for the youth that plays in the background, while powerful images and statistics of people affected by anxiety are shown. This form of media communication is supportive and effective when addressing the issue of anxiety.
Facebook is another popular social media website.
As of August 2015, Facebook has reported over 1.18 billion monthly active users. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is a site where users can create a user profile, add other users as "friends", exchange messages, post status updates and photos, share videos, use various apps and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. (Facebook, 2010) One of the groups people can like on Facebook is called "attn:”. ATTN: is a company that informs and empowers the next generation to make a social impact. Its content pursues everyday media platforms, news articles and videos that cover important societal topics, such as economic mobility, civil rights, education as well as incorporative meaningful calls-to-action. ATTN: has a separate website from Facebook, but other forms of social media such as Twitter and Instagram to promote their company. The company has created a recent video and posted it to their Facebook page on February 19th saying, "We need to face the epidemic of anxiety disorders in America". In the video, the topic of anxiety is talked about and it states that America is the most anxious country in the world because people are constantly trying to reach the "American Dream". At the end of the video there is a call-to-action where it asks to share the video with friends to spread
awareness of the illness and how much America spends to "cure" it. The video targets all ages because it's easy to comprehend and doesn't have any specific implications on preference for its viewers, which also makes it effective.
On social media there are also comics that depict any situation. One website has a collection of random comics where most of the comics are meant to be humorous, however, there are some that have some value and understanding to them. The topic of anxiety is clearly stated in one of the comics. It portrays a scenario with a woman and a monster, the monster being anxiety, constantly bothering the woman. The monster, anxiety, keeps putting negative thoughts in the woman’s head, most of which aren’t true. This is exactly what people with anxiety feel like, and so this comic effectively targets a vast amount of people of any age. Furthermore, it’s easy to understand and very relatable.
Anxiety is a mental disorder popular amongst most Americans. If not treated, one may have a difficult time coping with different aspects of life. When talking about anxiety, it’s important to know the facts, such as how many people are effected, how much the United States spends on anti-depressants and how it affects the brain as well as people’s lives. Health in America is always changing, and it’s imperative that everyone can get the help they need. Public service announcements can benefit a great deal of people by spreading awareness most effectively on social media and on the internet. For example, the Facebook page attn:, the YouTube video and the comic would be most effective out of all the PSAs talked about in this paper. In the generations to come, technology will advance and the use of it will increase. Therefore, PSAs on the internet and social media are and will be more effective than any other source.