台灣人是非常喜歡吃藥的民族，大多人認為吃藥能保健強身，早期報紙充斥以女性圖像表現的醫藥廣告，這些女性為主的醫藥廣告訴求類型為何，是否與台灣早期生活型態有密切關係；本研究將範圍鎖定 1956年至 1970年間，女性圖像醫藥廣告最蓬勃發展的年代，並蒐集台灣用藥文化、女性角色廣告表現等相關文獻，結合內容分析法進行研究，分析醫藥廣告中女性圖像所傳遞的視覺象徵意義，進一步歸納並從中探索醫藥廣告中女性圖像表現之視覺性，研究發現醫藥廣告中女性圖像代表的民眾崇拜心理與自我提升，圖 像並具有傳統東方面孔與西方裝扮的造型，這些早期醫藥廣告彷彿一部歷史紀錄片，女性圖像代表一種美的指標，一段歷史的紀錄，更是一個文化傳承。

The Taiwanese like to take medicine, for many people think that taking medicine can keep healthy. Patent medicines are easy to get in Taiwan, and there are many advertisements for medicine in the island’s newspapers. Especially in the period 1956-1970, Taiwanese newspaper ads promoting the importance of patent medicines for maintaining our health often featured women. Relatively young and attractive women were usually used, and these ads would emphasize the woman’s healthy-looking body, her figure. This study uses The Content Analysis to examine a selection of these ads and the role played in them by women and the female figure. This is thus a form of cultural studies that focuses on visual media, more specifically the visual “art” of advertising, and analyzes the symbolic function of the female body or figure in medical advertising. The results indicate that these attractive female figures tend to make people (potential customers) of both genders respect their bodies and their physical health more. Of course, the kind of medicine being advertised is also important to each ad’s meaning. This is also, in effect, a study of Taiwan’s “visual history.”