Caution! Keep This Commercial Out of Reach of Children!

Abstract

Children see approximately 1,000 television commercials for over-the-counter drugs each year. In 1973, HEW's Poison Control Center reported 1,098 cases of children under 5 ingesting adult aspirin overdoses while the figures for vitamins and children's aspirin were even higher. Mr. Choate and Ms. Debevoise believe there is a direct link between misuse of these drugs by children and television advertising of over-the-counter drugs.

Women as Home Caregivers: Gender Portrayal in OTC Drug Commercials

“…Citing government statistics on overdoses of OTC medicines by children, Choate and Debevoise argue that television drug ads could be contributing to the problem [2].…”