%0 Journal Article %A Wierda, Renske %A Visser, Jacky %T Direct-to-consumer advertisements for prescription drugs as an argumentative activity type %D 2012 %J Journal of Argumentation in Context %V 1 %N 1 %P 81-96 %@ 2211-4742 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.1.1.07wie %K consultation %K promotion %K Pragma-Dialectics %K DTCA %K argumentative activity type %I John Benjamins %X With direct-to-consumer advertisements (DTCA), pharmaceutical companies can market their prescription drugs directly to consumers. In order to properly study the argumentative aspect of these advertisements from a pragma-dialectical perspective, it is necessary to characterize DTCA as an ‘argumentative activity type’. This characterization shows that in DTCA, the advertiser combines two genres of communicative activity: promotion and consultation. The use of promotion stems from the advertiser’s commercial objective of selling products, while the use of consultation is a result of the legal obligation to present a fair balance between arguments for and against the use of a drug. %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/jaic.1.1.07wie