While watching T.V after a long day of work, you will more likely to watch about 50 ads during the commercial breaks. Since it’s the end of the day, sleeping aid companies such as Belsomra, Union and Nyquil, may take advantage of the opportunity to advertise their medications at this time of the 24 hours day we have. These ads for insomnia catches these adults attention at the perfect moment, which I find pretty brilliant. I specifically focused on Belsomra and their video. They created a cute and fun ad to promote their sleeping pills. I found this as super interesting because any adults can relate to, first of all, not sleeping at nights, and second of all, having pets either cuddle with you or not letting you sleep at all. This is definitely a good way to grab people’s attention who happens to be struggling with sleeping.

The company that markets Belsomra is Merck Sharp and Dohme Corp. The company is known as Merck in the United States and Canada and is headquartered in Kenilworth, New Jersey. Committed to improving health and well-being around the world, Merck is an innovative, global healthcare leader. They include diabetes, cancer, vaccines and hospital acute care as their core product categories. They mainly focus on research that is related to conditions that represents some of today’s significant health challenges—like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. They are the ones in the front line to fight against emerging global pandemics such as ebola. They look forward in taking advantage of the financial strength to fulfill their passion of improving health and improving lives worldwide. Merck is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world that has been changing the world for a little over 125 years. Merck’s beginnings can be traced as far as 1668 in Germany. It was a pharmacy called “At the Sign of the Angel” that was later transformed into a drug manufactory in 1827. In 1917, during the entrance of World War I, George Merck, fearing anti-German sentiment, turned over a sizable portion of Merck stock to the Alien Property Custodian of the United States. They did this to end their Merck and Co.’s connections to its German parent. In 1919, Alien Property Custodian sold Merck shares, worth $3 million, to the public. George Merck remained control of the corporation. In 1984, Merck had become the largest U.S.-based manufacturer of drugs in the three largest markets—the United State, Japan, and Europe. Even though there have been several bumps throughout the way, Merck has managed to stay successful over the 125 years. Today there vision is “To make a difference in the lives of people globally through our innovative medicines, vaccines, and animal health products. We are committed to being the premier, research-intensive biopharmaceutical company and are dedicated to proving leading innovations and solutions for today and the future.” Merck wants to be able to help people by providing medicine and vaccines. Their mission statement is, “To discover, develop and provide innovative products and services that save and improve lives around the world.” They look forward to make improvements on their products to give better services and improve people’s lives.

People with insomnia have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or awakening too early, or any combination of the three. As a young adult, this ad does not catch my attention. Yes, I may have sleepless nights, but I don’t suffer from insomnia and I’m not desperate for sleeping aids. This advertisement targets mainly middle age adults to elders. In the video, you notice the lady that is having trouble sleeping is an older adult. Studies has shown that older adults need seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Men and women ages 65+ years have a harder time sleeping throughout the night. The lady represents the older age adults. Also, you relies that it’s a lady who seems to be suffering with insomnia. Women are twice as likely to have insomnia as men, actually. Hormones is one of the reason why many women aren’t getting their sleep. Researchers have found that there are no differences in sleep until puberty starts. At different times of the month women may have harder time getting sleep. Women are also prone to mood disorders, which is related to sleepless nights. Another reason could be the overlap of caregiver responsibilities and work. And the video was the first video on the YouTube page.

One of the main sleep-inducing ingredient in these sleeping aids are diphenhydramine, an antihistamine. Antihistamine have been used by people to reduce fever or cold symptoms, but doctors have been aware that they also make people feel drowsy. Belsomra tablets also contain suvorextant, which is a highly selective antagonist for orexin receptors OX1R and OX2R. The orexin receptors in the brain play a role of keeping a person awake. When suvorexant is applied, its therapeutic effect blocks the binding of wake promoting neuropeptides orexin A and B to receptors OX1R and OX2R. This causes the person to fall to sleep. It’s recommended to take a dose of 10mg once per night and must be taken within 30 minutes of going to bed. If the 10mg isn’t effective, 20mg dose can be taken per day. If someone takes higher doses, it could be dangerous causing drowsiness the following day that may cause auto crashes if they drive. There hasn’t been any major cases where people are addicted, but what could happen is that people may increase their tolerant and what/need a higher dose. It’s also dangerous taking it with alcohol. This could cause abnormal behaviors such as aggressiveness, confusion, agitation, and/or hallucination. If the person is suffering from depression, taking the tablets could worsen their depression. The ad is very good at being transparent including the side effects and dangerous risk that comes along taking Belsomra.

Merck had a unique way of adverting Belsomra. At the beginning of the video, the lady closes her book ready to go to sleep. She reaches for the “sleepy” pet—craftily using this pet metaphor, sleepy cat and lively dog—representing her need to sleep. Sleepy cat gets out of her hands and runs off while she searches for it. This is implying her inability to sleep, also known as insomnia. “Wakey” dog is barking at the cat not letting the cat sleep. The lady then takes Wakey dog to his bed that says “Belsomra” causing the dog to go to sleep. You’re right. Belsomra is the medication that will help you get the sleep that you need. Sleepy cat finally hops onto the bed to cuddle with their owner. This is a great ad because it builds a connection with their audience. They disproportionately try to avoid showing any form of loss, especially the loss of something we are attached to emotionally. They do an excellent job avoiding this by showing the loss of sleep in form of a beloved pet. This triggers the audience making them more interested in the product and wanting to learn more about it. The ad is pretty straight forward. They later show the lady outside taking a walk with their dog that signifies the lady being fully awake.

Personally, if a family member or a good close friend is suffering from insomnia, I would like them to give the sleeping aids a try. I would want them to feel well rested daily and not worry about not being able to sleep the next night. There aren’t any great cases of people over-dosing on sleeping pills to get high or because they are addicted to it. Also, there are many cases of people misusing the drug. They are sleeping pills. It’s self-explanatory. At the same time, I wouldn’t want my friends and/or family to rely on sleeping pills. I have a personal belief that we can train our mind and bodies to do what we wish it could do.

Citations

Belsomra (suvorexant) for the Treatment of Insomnia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 02, 2017, from http://www.drugdevelopment-technology.com/projects/belsomra-suvorexant-treatment-insomnia/

Company Fact Sheet. (n.d.). Retrieved November 02, 2017, from http://www.merck.com/about/our-history/facts/home.html

Conroy, P. D. (n.d.). 3 Reasons Women Are More Likely to Have Insomnia. Retrieved November 02, 2017, from http://healthblog.uofmhealth.org/health-management/3-reasons-women-are-more-likely-to-have-insomnia

PharmaLive. (n.d.). Retrieved November 02, 2017, from http://www.pharmalive.com/favorite-dtc-campaigns/