Rote learning after exposure to a direct-to-consumer television advertisement for a prescription drug.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to: (1) test the rote learning response; and (2) investigate the effects of selected consumer demographic/psychographic, information-access, and health-related knowledge/experience variables on rote learning after exposure to a televised direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisement that was developed and broadcast under new US Food and Drug Administration guidelines. A judgment (nonprobability) sample of 202 individuals waiting for their appointments at a university-based general medicine clinic was selected to view a televised advertisement and complete a questionnaire. One participant returned an unusable form; 24 others held positions in health care occupations and were omitted from the analysis. Results based on responses from the 177 eligible participants showed that the presentation of both promotional and risk-related product information in the same broadcast advertisement may lead to viewer problems with rote learning of each type of information.