Fake drug, fake illness, real art

For when you've really gotta havidol.

Australian artist Justine Cooper created the marketing campaign for a non-existent drug called Havidol for Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder (DSACDAD), which she also invented.

But the multi-media exhibit at the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in New York, which includes a Web site, mock television and print advertisements and billboards is so convincing people think it is authentic.

The theme of the art sort of rubs me just a bit funny, seeing as many of the drugs to which this "campaign" refers are good drugs for real illnesses that have been manipulated into lifestyle enhancers by clever marketing campaigns. I'm not sure if folks have, for example, really been able to develop the nuance that, for example, SSRIs have a place for folks with a real illness of depression, or that some people's health is greatly suffering from an inability to maximize their sleep hygiene, etc.

But I won't over-intellectualize this too much for the moment. The thing's damn funny, either way.

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