An Interactional Perspective of Pharmaceutical AdvertisementsThere are numerous arguments in scientific articles, pharmaceutical companies, medical institutions, and the media regarding the effects of prescription drug advertisements on consumers. If you Google “direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCPA) for prescription drugs,” more than a million results, including petitions to ban and regulate the advertising, will flood your screen (Donohue 2006 : 659). DTCPA is defined as “any promotional effort made by a pharmaceutical company to present information about prescription drugs to the general public through lay media” (Ventola 2011: 669). Despite the controversy surrounding the DTCPA, American consumers are increasingly bombarded with advertisements about depression, insomnia, diabetes, and many other advertisements aimed at providing preparations for serious illnesses and our everyday ailments. Who are these ads aimed at and what do they imply about society's perception of what it means to be a healthy person in the United States? This article will analyze three prescription advertisements, Cymbalta, Boniva and Cialis from an interactional sociological perspective and highlight relevant aspects of gender in the pharmaceutical industry. The United States is one of two countries where DTCPA is legal. Those who support the DTCPA debate whether the advertisements inform consumers and make patients aware of a variety of treatment options. Those who oppose it say it is harmful to the public, knowing that it increases additional healthcare costs, impacts doctor-patient relationships, and has the ability to manipulate consumers into providing misleading information (Blose and Mack 2009: 315). Additionally, because the study...... middle of article ...... is aimed at different age groups and genders and shows the remarkable way in which the industry constructs ideas about health, gender roles and tells us what it means to be a healthy person in this society. The implications of the DTCPA on consumers can be detrimental due to the manipulation of information, the increase in inadequate healthcare costs, and the influence it can have on the relationship between a physician and their patients. With women as their target audience, these companies have the ability to create a market for the disease and shape our assumptions about gender, thereby further perpetuating inequalities and limiting studies done focusing on men as the primary research subjects. In order to make research and health issues more representative, it is imperative to address these issues in order to be able to effectively treat society as a whole...