The Mega Marketing Of Depression

In Ethan Watters’ essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” he has a discussion with Dr. Laurence Kirmayer regarding Kirmayer’s invitation to the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety. In their discussion Kirmayer talks about how the basis of his invitation was on the notion that he as the director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill could add to the answer the large pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline was looking for. The question at hand was how culture influences the illness experience, but more specifically how depression is influenced by culture in Japan. If the conference was a success, the company would be able to enter and expand into a market worth billions of dollars. The reason that the cultural aspect of depression was very important was because in countries like Japan, the American conception of depression was taken as a more serious illness, rivaling heights of diseases like schizophrenia. The company hoped that by somehow changing the Japan’s perception of the illness from being something social or moral to the American conception where expressing the illness to others is considered being strong person rather than being a weak one, that their drug Paxil would be able to sell to the market, which is where the scientific and economic aspects of depression come into effect. The scientific and economic aspects take place due to the intentions of the company to sell the drug, and the drug’s ability to help

Culture is known to be able to shape the beliefs of a society through its language. The term “depression” for example, was not commonly used due to the impression that depression was not psychological, but rather more physical. This is because the people of Japan were able to find ways to avoid giving in to the feeling and moving on with their lives. In Ethan Watters’ “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan”, Watters looks into how pharmaceutical companies attempted to change the concept of depression in Japan in order to create a market to sell their antidepressant drugs. He discusses how the Japanese culture was influenced by the companies that were selling the drugs by imposing western beliefs on Japan, which would result in the

In “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” Ethan Watters reveals how a community can be manipulated by marketing because of culture barriers. The author discloses the intentions of a western pharmaceutical company, which is to “make Paxil a hit in Japan.”(516). Paxil, a drug said to cure depression, has led people on because of the remarkable advertising that was used. Ultimately, the advertising turned out to not match up with what they were trying to sell and their idea of depression. To convince the Japanese to buy their drug, they first had to change Japan's views of depression. Like Kirmayer said, “Cultures shape the illness experience,”(Watters 515) saying that the Japanese had a

A culture typically portrays the character traits or identity of a particular group of people. Each culture has diverse ideologies and perceptions; therefore, every group is different. On a large scale, these ideas merge together and give shape to cultural norms, which in turn form the foundation of reality. In "The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan," Ethan Watters explores the relationship between cultural norms and actuality. The article talks about the influence of pharmaceutical companies on the paradigm shift in Japan's psychiatry. Watters explains, "The objective was to influence, at the most fundamental level, the Japanese understanding of sadness and depression" (516). In other words, Pharmaceutical companies attempted to alter

For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of

In Ethan Watters’ essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” he has a discussion with Dr. Laurence Kirmayer regarding Kirmayer’s invitation to the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety. In their discussion, Kirmayer talks about how the basis of his invitation was on the notion that he as the director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill could add to the answer the large pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline was looking for. The question at hand was how culture influences an illness experience, but more specifically how depression is influenced by culture in Japan. A similar notion of influence can be seen in Karen Ho’s essay, “Biographies of Hegemony”, in which the idea of being a part

Humankind is always making improvements. Fire was discovered for warmth, and now humans have heaters that keep them even warmer. The shadows told people what time of the day it was, and now it can be found out instantly by looking at phones or watches. Many innovations have a positive impact on humans. However, there are some cases where it is not, or at least there isn’t a black-or-white categorization for it. These ideas can be seen through the close reading of the essays “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” by Ethan Watters, which focuses on the progress of the company GlaxoSmithKline spreading their antidepressants, and “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” by Michael Moss, which focuses on the progress of the quality

In order to remain an original individual, one must use the ideas they have obtained and put a personal twist on it to make it unique. Nafisi writes about her value of Western literature and the ideas it provides her to compare to the occurrences in her own life based on the regime influence and their ideal culture. She is not trying to use these pieces of literature to change her own culture, in fact she tells her readers “…do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth” (Nafisi 279). From this statement, Nafisi wants her reader’s attention to focus on not trying to find themselves in another persons’ piece of literature, but instead use this knowledge to expand on their own personal ideas and lifestyle. She wants her readers to see the difference between fiction and reality, and how one is not complete without the other. Such as how new ideas are not possible without the influence of old ones. Nafisi expresses how literature keeps her well-being and originality intact while Watters depicts pharmaceutical companies for trying to push their ideas upon different cultures. Pharmaceutical companies tend to overlook the well-being of humans and their originality since their “…objective was to influence, at the most fundamental level, the Japanese understanding of sadness and depression. In short, they were learning how to market a disease” (Watters 516). Watters points out how the pharmacy companies were trying to figure out how to get depression across without sounding like a horrible disease to the Japanese culture. Companies wanted to change the Japanese culture for their own benefit in selling a drug to cure a disease that was frowned upon in that country. Instead of letting Japan hold its originality in the

Predetermined realities are realities that people blindly accept and inhabit as their own. These false realities constrict the expression of life by clouding an individual’s purpose and guiding them to live systematically. Too often individuals neglect to navigate their lives around their own wants, beliefs and values. Instead of making independent decisions, decisions are made based on the opinions or pressures from others, suppressing one’s authentic reality with societal norms. These norms and expectations set forth by authorities inadvertently transform an individual’s reality into an unoriginal, predetermined reality. In other words, there is an infinite number of aesthetically eccentric views, but we are given binoculars to only focus on what others want us to see. Unfortunately, these societal interferences are nearly unavoidable. Cathy Davidson’s essay, “Project Classroom Makeover,” presents how the enforcement of mundane standardization in American education systems leads to the decrease of original talents and creativity. Similarly, Ethan Watters’ essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” portrays the ways in which pharmaceutical companies attempt to standardize depression, shifting the reality of an entire culture, for the sake of their profit. Lastly, in “The Mind’s Eye,” Oliver Sacks illustrates how reality differs between individuals by using stories from individuals with blindness. Evidently, reality is in the

Culture often has large differences in a society in terms of common interest, belief and sense of the real word. Definition of culture is the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time. The majority of world population, even some uncivilized, primitive villages in Africa, has owned culture that member of the society comply and give them guidelines for the way to live a life. In Ethan Watters’ text “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan”, he talks about how different culture brought difference view about the same incident, depression, mental illness and its medication. He explains that Japanese culture has a different understanding and definition of depression and mental illness as compared with American culture. In Japanese culture, doctors distinguish depression and mental illness as very rare and crucial matters that makes patients going to the mental hospital for over a year. In contrast, in American culture, everyone can get instant medical services about depression and mental illness whenever people need it. As a member of a culture, an individual’s life is affected by the culture since that culture is what he is living in, which causes people of each culture have their way to handle a matter. Unfortunately, when it comes to an opportunity about seeking profit, people or organizations who have power, like pharmaceutical companies, will try to bring a method that globalizes culture differences to

It became clear what Tom was going through and why (Given, et al., 2004). Another point to add here is that Tom might have gone through depression during his father 's final days and after (Gries, C. J., Engelberg, R. A., Kross, E. K., Zatzick, D., Nielsen, E. L., Downey, L., & Curtis, J. R. 2010), and it is a possibility that he is picturing himself going through the same pain of loss with regards to his mother, which is causing him depression. Moreover, a final revelation by Eric was that Tom has turned towards alcohol for support and has made a routine of drinking excessive alcohol every other day until he can no longer stay awake. Again, alcohol can be a major contributor to depression and can increase the chances of it becoming

Kilbourne demonstrates three major main criticisms of advertising. First, advertising objectifies people and objects for the purpose of sales. This critique promotes products as more important than people and exploits human deeds and desires. Kilbourne offers ample evidence to support her first criticism of advertising. For example, Kilbourne examines advertisement such as the Thule car-rack - which humorously places more value on sports equipment been a child's life - is evidence of the trend that advertising is “objectif[ing] people…trivializ[ing and exploiting] our most heartfelt moments and relationships. Every emotion [,person, animal, and natural phenomenon] is used to sell us something” (Kilbourne, 2006, 369). Second - according to Kilbourne - advertising promotes and perpetuates the unnatural passion for products rather than personal relationship. “Advertising corrupts relationships and then offers us products, both as solace and as substitutes for the intimate human connection we all long for and need” (Kilbourne, 2006, 370). Within this concept, advertising also commits ‘cultural rape’ by manipulating sacred symbols for their utilization as emotional leverage in advertising. Third, advertisements damage the personality and structure of culture. For example the Giwch’in tribe’s traditional culture was almost erased by the introduction of advertising through television. “As multinational chains replace local character, we end up in a world in which everyone is Gapped and Starbucked…[Thus] rampant commercialism undermines our physical and psychological health, our environments and our civic life, and creates a toxic society” (Kilbourne, 2006, 371), which robs individuals of cultural and personal diversity. Based on the evidence presented by Kilbourne, I strongly agree with all three of these

The readers of both Moss and Watters are introduced to the manipulative skills corporations hold within their mega-marketing and idea processing backgrounds. Both authors introduce their mega-marketing topics as a negative and chilling idea, in which the products that big corporations are trying to sell are related to something much simpler in terms of the effect’s it will have on the human body. For instance, Watters states “these practices are the medical equivalent of what real estate agents do to sell vacation time shares” (514). In this statement, he is comparing the selling objectives of drugs to vacation homes, and how corporations can use the same tactics in order to mega-market and sell their products. Watters is bringing up the idea of drug companies encouraging and advertising the use of antidepressants, as they are trying to change the morals and thoughts of diseases and drug usages of other countries such as Japan. Moss would agree with Watters’ idea of corporations using their persuasive actions on consumers. In his writing, he states that the world and “culture [has] become upset by the tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing” (Moss 260). Both food and drug corporations take a stand in mega-marketing, pushing their ideas into the minds of consumers. Although they do not focus on separate beliefs of

(2015) showed that life satisfaction can dip in middle age in English speaking countries but rises in older age while in European countries the reverse can occur. The implication here could be that wellbeing is subjective and based on norms. Also, culture clearly plays a part as those who live in more collective cultures such as Africa tend to base their happiness on family values while those in Western societies tend to be individualistic and aim to improve their own wellbeing (Robinson, 2009). Therefore, in social work practice one needs to be mindful on how cultures, norms and age can influence one’s wellbeing and how this could be used to understand why some service users in Winterbourne View used positive risks: a risk in the hope of leading to a positive outcome (Williamson, 2014) but did not inform of other abuses they had witnessed. Furthermore, when assessing service users being mindful of how collectivist cultures such as those of African, Indian and West Indian communities may have their wellbeing partly in families and community settings. This could lead to more effective assessments as they focus on environmental factors external to the individual in which wellbeing can be enhanced (Parrish,

This paper will weigh if there is a relationship between the psychological constructs of cultural identity and well-being. First there will be a consideration on what defines a cultural identity and how it fits in with psychological development and well-being. Followed by an explanation of different perspectives of well-being.