The Mega-Marketing Of Depression Analysis

In the ever-expanding world today, consumers are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the ploys of mass media advertising and pharmaceutical companies alike. Ethan Watters in “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” delves into the dangers of the globalization of a mentality for depression that seeks to transcend cultural values and traditions completely. Every culture is unique in its explanatory reasoning for various circumstances and events that occur in the population, ranging from mental health to a general outlook on life. This globalization by pharmaceutical companies seeks to eliminate the social and natural confines of a disease like depression and instead establish a medical model that is rigidly enforced through marketing and challenging
Belief systems, upbringing, and societal mores all influence one’s perception of the self and place in the world. While some look to religion or cultural heritage to offer insight on the human condition; others look to science for a definitive answer. It is human nature to crave an explanation for why we are the way we are. In Japan, the two main concepts explaining depression were the endogenous depression model and the melancholic personality model. The endogenous model held a very negative view in Japan because it didn’t apply to all people; instead, it was seen more as affecting only a few people who suffered from psychotic episodes. The melancholic personality, however, fit right into the Japanese perception of a respected individual, because it drew upon favorable qualities such as being serious, hard-working, and selfless. It was seen as something one should aim to reach, “Feelings of overwhelming sadness were often venerated in television shows, movies, and popular songs…Feelings that we may pathologize as depressive were often thought of in Japan as a source of moral meaning and self-understanding” (522). The melancholic personality was emulated by the Japanese instead of being feared or perceived as a mental illness. This created a great conundrum for the pharmaceutical giants looking to
It also poses a huge barrier that can separate one culture from another. The pharmaceutical industry sought to transcend this barrier in Japan by using linguistic manipulation to their own advantage: “Depression, they repeated in advertising and promotional material, was kokoro no kaze, like “a cold of the soul” (524). This was just one of many attempts by GlaxoSmithKline to market depression in a “new” way, ensnaring more Japanese consumers in their web of lies. Pharmaceutical companies even utilized the Japanese population’s unease with the alarmingly high suicide rates to their own advantage, intermingling depression with a completely different issue. This raises a major concern in terms of morality because it breeds false reliance on certain