This is an advertisement for the psychotropic drug Haldol. It was featured in a psychiatric journal in the sixties, which will bring a couple of things to mind. The “belligerent” man depicted in the picture is clearly a black man, in an aggressive, assaultive stance.
This advertisement was run right around the civil rights era, which does something to explain the unexplained aggressive, assaultive, and belligerent behavior. What do you do when someone just wont stay in their place? You confine and medicate them against their will. This ad is a lot to swallow.
I don’t know whether such a thing actually did take place at the time, but the insinuation is enough for me. Everything about this advertisement screams social control. The words are made to instill fear within the reader, to cause a sort of panic about what could be, and will be possible, if certain measures and precautions are not taken.
The ad is also careful to add: Usually leaves patients relatively alert and responsive. Relative to what- a vegetable? What happens not usually? Who cares, this guy just wont stay in his place.
Seriously though, this is maybe the most racist ad I’ve ever seen, even for the time. The way it panders to a deep-seated psychological fear about the unrest of a disenfranchised race is pretty low ball. It’s hard to think of something more offensive. And again, the implications of locking someone up and medicating them because they threaten your political and economic stability is just terrible. Really, really terrible.
Social Control Tool? Absolutely.
