Marketing ADHD: The Gendering and Disciplining of Children Through Drugs
Sara Mott

"Already Done with my Homework Dad!" and

"Think you know what to expect with ADHD? Think Again"

appeared in Woman's Day magazine, November 2003

The little boy in the Adderall XR ad is calm and slightly aloof. His body is neatly aligned and his hands are folded maturely into his baseball mitt. From the text of the ad and his position on the stairs leading up to his doorstep, we can infer that he is eagerly anticipating the return of his father, whom he hopes will play catch with him. Yet the boy's eagerness is tempered and clearly disciplined, from his posture we can tell that he is enthusiastic but not exuberantly so; he is excited but not to a point of chaos that could have been suggested by a splaying of limbs or an unrestrained grin. The little boy is the essence of the properly disciplined, well-behaved child.

In striking contrast, the scene portrayed in the Strattera ad ("Think you know what to expect with ADHD?") is much more emotional. The three girls are posed with their bodies leaning affectionately against one another. The open smiles on their faces and the obvious signs of friendship suggest proper socialization. The girl to the far right holds her hand slightly open and towards the viewer, as though suggesting a willingness to engage the viewer, to include him or her in the intimacy of their lives. It is also clear that they are adolescent girls playing at women's roles, although their youth is evidenced by both the blonde girl's braces and the red barrette in the hair of the girl to the far right, all three are wearing lipstick. The faint traces of lipstick suggest a readiness to take on more mature, adult roles, to move into womanhood and accept its responsibilities.

Both ads are for drugs designed to curb the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In the history of mental disorders, ADHD is a relative newcomer. First diagnosed around 1980 (add-adhd.org), in the past two decades it has rapidly become a controversial and, some would argue, over-diagnosed disorder. Significantly, ADHD is first and foremost a disorder of childhood, although in recent years its definition has been expanded to include adults. As the Strattera ad's website (strattera.com) defines it, a child may be suffering from ADHD if the following symptoms are observed: often ignores details; makes careless mistakes; often has trouble sustaining attention in work or play; often does not seem to listen when directly addressed; often gets distracted by extraneous noise; often fidgets or squirms; often runs or climbs when he or she shouldn't; often has difficulty with leisure activities; often on the go, as if driven by a motor; often talks excessively; or often blurts out answers before questions have been completed. Depending on who one asks, it could be argued that these are symptoms of a healthy childhood, not a disorder.

Yet in the past six years since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has relaxed restrictions on pharmaceutical advertising, companies such as these have had more at stake than ever when it comes to convincing the public that they need various drug treatments (Metzl 2003). Both Shire (the manufacturers of Strattera) and Eli Lilly (the manufacturers of Adderall XR) reported net earnings in the billions (Eli Lilly Corporation Annual Report for the Fiscal Year 2002 and Shire Annual Report for Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2002); Lilly reports unabashedly that "sales of ADDERALL XR and ADDERALL during 2002 were $427.7 million, representing approximately 41% of our total revenues" (Annual Report 2002: 6). With massive revenues at stake, these drug companies must work hard to market their products through direct advertising schemes that appeal to the current fears and needs of the consumer. Indeed, as we can infer from the fact each of these full page ads cost $177,560 to appear in Woman's Day magazine (U. of Texas Advertising: 2000), selling not just the drugs but the behaviors portrayed by the children in the ads is a big business.

Childhood has long been noted as a key time frame for the disciplining of bodies into socialized, gendered beings (Foucault 1979, Martin 1998). The little boy in the Adderall XR ad is a prime example of what Michel Foucault describes as the disciplining of bodies into docile beings that can create "a context for social relations" (cited in Martin, 1998: 495). The boy's demeanor suggests a control over base emotions; he is still eager to play with his father, but in a mature, adult context. The self-regulation of his bodily gestures suggests that rather than waste his father's time with unnecessary, childish rowdiness, he is ready and willing to submit to his father's (adult) notions of proper play and etiquette. Similarly, the open hand of the girl to the far right in the Strattera ad suggests a willingness to comply with the viewer of the ad, who, based on the larger context of the magazine, is most likely to be a middle-class homemaker.

However, the ads sell more than just the promise of properly disciplined children who can interact on an "adult" level: they also sell the promise of properly gendered children as well. The girls in the Strattera ad are ready for "school, friends, [and] clothes." Their smiles and giggly demeanors suggest that their ability to focus on these activities (the promise of the ad) has made them happy and well adjusted. In contrast, the message of the Adderall XR ad is that by taking drugs to treat his ADHD, the little boy is able to focus on what should really matter for young males: sports and academic achievement. Although the ad appears in Woman's Day magazine, the heading of the ad happily announces: "Already Done with my Homework Dad!" From this we can infer that although it is primarily a mother's responsibility to discipline and care for her children (including being aware of and treating possible mental disorders) the primary purpose of these responsibilities is to facilitate the father's interactions with and socialization of his son.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of these ads is the insinuation that we can bring everyone under a standard umbrella of (gendered) behavior with the right drugs. In this respect the timeless echoes of the nature/culture debate again rears its head: both ads suggest that answers to questions of gender "deviance" and "mis"behavior can be solved if we turn to the natural sciences, where these issues are reduced to chemical imbalances of the brain. The ads imply that the solutions to problems with discipline, gender development, and family life may be found in drugs like Adderall XR and Strattera. In an atmosphere where the popular media celebrates "scientific" evidence of "inherent" gender behaviors, perhaps it truly isn't surprising to discover that these drugs make business boom. Dialogue on this issue must continue in order to raise awareness of the fact that in many cases we may be trying to solve social problems by scientific means. Unfortunately, for the busy parents of today it may be easier to succumb to the lure of the easy fix proposed in the ads than to question what is actually appealing about their message and why.