“I Want to Be One Less”: The Rhetoric of Choice in Gardasil Ads

Abstract

It is nearly impossible to watch television without encountering advertisements for pharmaceuticals that purport to ease a plethora of medical concerns. From restless leg syndrome to heartburn, there are new drugs available for a wide variety of health-related conditions. One of the more controversial remedies on this list is the Gardasil vaccine. Gardasil was designed by the drug company Merck to protect against 4 strains of the sexually transmitted disease human papillomavirus. According to the Gardasil website, one of the human papillomavirus strains that Gardasil protects against causes 70% of cervical cancers. Marketing Gardasil as a miracle product and an anticancer vaccine, Merck in 2006 launched a massive public relations campaign to encourage all young women between 9 and 26 years of age to receive Gardasil.

Notes

¹ This is total incidence, not the total number of cervical cancer deaths or diagnoses caused by HPV.

² Both ads were also online on the Gardasil website in 2009.

³ This is accomplished by featuring women and girls who appear to be middle class in the ads on the basis of locations where the actors are shot, their dress, and apparent occupations or hobbies of the actors. This is discussed in greater detail later in the textual analysis of the ads.

⁴ One of the reasons that pharmaceutical companies are now able to place so many advertisements on television is related to new guidelines that were written by the Food and Drug Administration in 1997, titled Guidance to Industry: Consumer Directed Broadcast Advertising. Before the guidelines outlined in that document, consumers were exposed to potential drugs or vaccines on the recommendation of their doctor. The new guidelines did not require that ads have an equal amount of time to explain the benefits and risks of the drug as long as sources for more information were provided. See Mogull (2008) for the complete timeline.

⁵ On the basis of combinations of skin and eye color that appear non-Caucasian.

⁶ Gardasil, “I Chose.” This ad is no longer accessible online and has been replaced with a new mother-daughter ad. Accessed April 16 2009, from http://www.gardasil.com/i-chose-tv.

⁷ This ad is no longer circulating but has been replaced with another similar mother-daughter ad. Gardasil, “I Chose.” Gardasil Website. Accessed April 16 2009, from http://www.gardasil.com/i-chose-tv

⁸ See Herskovits (2007) for more information on Gardasil's branding.

⁹ See Gardasil.com; Gardasil helps protect against four types of HPV, and HPV transmission can happen through any genital contact.

¹⁰ See American Society of Registered Nurses (2009, October 1) for statistics on cervical cancer screening for low-income women.

¹¹ See the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Website (2011); “Most of the 96 million women ages 18 to 64 have some form of coverage. However, the patchwork of different private sector and publicly-funded programs in the U.S. leaves one in five uninsured.”

¹² See the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation report on women's health insurance.

¹³ According to the CDC, the Pap test and the HPV test (which is conducted during a Pap test) are the established screenings for cervical cancer. See “Cervical Cancer Screening” on the CDC website.

¹⁴ See Ungar (2007, November 14).

¹⁵ See Patient Assistance Programs (2011) at Eli Lilly and Access to Medicines (2011) at GlaxoSmithKline.

¹⁶ See the Gardasil access program.

¹⁷ See Merck Vaccine Patient Assistance.

¹⁸ According to Breitkopf, Pearson, and Breitkopf (2005), women with more than a high school education and who earn more than $10,000 a year are more educated on the purpose of the Pap smear.

¹⁹ See Herskovits (2007). Brand of the Year. Pharmaceutical Executive.

²⁰ In Texas, where the vaccine was mandated in 2007, all girls entering the sixth grade were required to get the vaccine, and girls who were uninsured were able to get the vaccine for free. Governor Perry supported mandatory vaccination because he compared Gardasil to the polio vaccine, and argued it was good for all girls. However, parents are allowed to opt out.

²¹ See Sheyn, (2009) for a discussion on the drawbacks of the Gardasil vaccine.

²² See HPV Vaccines at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Insurance coverage for Gardasil for women older than 18 years of age varies by plan and state.