ArticleInternational journal of women's dermatology2023
Skin tone representation in dermatologic direct-to-consumer advertisements: a cross-sectional analysis and call to action.
Article in International journal of women's dermatology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Paving the Way to Healthcare Equity: A Comprehensive Review of Care Gaps and Emerging Initiatives in Dermatology.Dermatology and therapy · 2026Review
- Exploring racial, ethnic, and gender treatment differences in patients with psoriasis.Archives of dermatological research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Direct-to-consumer advertisements (DTCAs) in medical marketing serve as a prominent modality to deliver information to an increasingly diverse audience of consumers and increase prescription sales. In dermatology, advertisements have the potential to shape the public's opinions, aid in the understanding of skin conditions, and raise awareness of available treatments. Objective: To investigate and characterize the representation of skin tones in DTCAs. Methods: Nielsen ratings were utilized to identify the networks most watched by Black viewers in 2022. Programming on NBCUniversal, ABC, CBS, and FOX that aired in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia from June 2022 to July 2022 was reviewed for DTCAs. DTCAs were then analyzed to determine the skin tones of models and skin conditions depicted on models with darkly pigmented skin. Results: Of the 106 DTCAs related to dermatologic conditions, there were 13 unique advertisements featuring 32 unique models. Four advertisements depicted the skin condition on darkly pigmented skin tones. Using the Monk Skin Tone (MST) scale to assess the 32 unique individuals, only 25% ( Limitations: This study has the limitation of only sampling DTCAs from Washington, District of Columbia which does not fully represent all dermatology-related DTCAs in the United States. Conclusion: Results of this content analysis demonstrate that the number of persons of color within dermatologic DTCAs is 23%, whereas there are 13.6% Black individuals in the 2021 US census. This suggests that DTCAs are becoming more diverse since 2018. However, findings also show that the vast majority of DTCAs do not include models with darkly pigmented skin, and there remains a lack of advertisements depicting skin disease among people of color. Given the role of DTCAs in informing and aiding patients' requests for prescription drugs, representation of all skin tones is essential for this communication to be effective, especially in the field of dermatology.
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Registered trials
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