John Edwards, a U.S. presidential candidate, would apparently ban drug ads targeted at consumers for 2 years. This type of advertising by pharmaceutical companies is called direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in the industry, and it pays well because pharmaceutical companies recognize the value in getting their brand names in front of the right audiences.
Why does John Edwards want such pharmaceutical advertising banned for the first 2 years after a new drug is released?
“You’ve seen these ads. You know who’s paying for them, right? You are,” Edwards said yesterday at a speech in New Hampshire, the AP reported. He added that the ads are “driving up demand for the most expensive and most profitable drugs.”
Okay, but isn’t that an argument for, well, any company that advertises? I mean, cars would be cheaper if all the automobile manufacturers stopped advertising. Food prices would also decrease, according to his logic, if large food companies stopped all their advertising.
The problem is, of course, that little thing we have in America we call the 1st Amendment. Advertising traditionally falls under the cover of protected “free speech” in the U.S. So banning such ads for a specific period of time would likely come under heavy legal fire and be tied up in the courts for years.
Danny Carlat, M.D., has a different take on DTC ads — he actually likes them (see What’s Wrong with DTC Ads?).
I tend to agree… I think the potential for benefits in terms of educating people about possible and usually common ills outweighs their annoyance factor or whatever small bump in prescriptions such marketing gives the drug.
Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.Like this author?
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 29 Oct 2007
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Grohol, J. (2007). Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 14, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/10/29/direct-to-consumer-drug-advertising/
