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Study Questions TV Drug Ads

-February 1, 2007

Drug companies are spending exorbitant sums of money on television advertising, and their efforts are not in vain. Nowadays, consumers go to their physicians requesting prescriptions for drugs they've seen advertised on TV. But is drug advertising misleading consumers, asks a new study in the Annals of Family Medicine .

The pharmaceutical industry says TV ads provide consumers with important information about certain drugs. However, research showed that while the ads were technically accurate, the tone of the messages were often misleading.

The Research

Researchers analyzed 38 TV ads targeting individuals with varying conditionsfrom herpes, hypertension, and high cholesterol to depression, allergies, and arthritis. They found that the ads tended to promote unrealistic representations of the conditions and expectations of what the drugs can actually achieve.

Typically, what we would see with these ads is that before taking a particular prescription drug, the character's life is out of control and the loss of control extended beyond the impact of their health condition, said lead researcher and UCLA psychologist, Dominick Frosch.

One advertisement, for instance, portrays patients with herpes as being incapacitated for days because of their condition. Another depicts depressed patients as boring and friendless.

When the character is then shown taking the drug, he magically regains complete control of his life, Frosch said.

According to the findings, none of the adswhich are frequently aired during prime timesuggested lifestyle changes that could be used to help treat the conditions being targeted. This did not surprise the researchers, since drug advertising is just another type of mass marketing.

Not Like Other Products

Still, prescription medications are not like other products.

We tend to forget that pharmaceuticals are powerful agents, not just any commodity. Advertising them based on their emotional appeal is something that has great risks, said Dr. David Kessler, former head of the FDA.

Kessler headed the agency for seven years and opposed advertising drugs on TV. Rules were relaxed after Kessler left and TV ads for drugs were eventually permitted, which he said was a mistake.

He said that now that ads have been approved, a complete ban is unlikely. Even so, he added, regulation of ads can, and should, be stricter. Kessler said the FDA needs to ask:

Does the ad in the end convey a fairly balanced view of what this drug is going to donot some wish list?

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