Survey: Consumers dislike drug ads

Side-effect warnings reduce effectiveness of drug ads, study finds. A Nando Times news article states, “You’ve seen the TV commercials for drugs that promise to relieve allergies, banish migraines, grow back your hair, prevent heart attacks, relieve herpes. Then comes the stern voice droning on about possible side effects, from annoying diarrhea to startlingly dire problems like birth defects, addiction, liver failure, heart damage.”

It is said that the average consumer watches nine TV commercials every day for prescription drugs, and new advertising research says they’re not happy about it.

“People really dislike these ads,” Beth Miller of the advertising agency Campbell Mithun Esty told a meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.

Consumers used words like “trite,” “boring” and “goofy” to describe some ads, telling Miller they were tired of healthy-looking “patients” wandering on the beach or windsurfing through wheatfields to sell medication.

But Miller mostly blames all that negative side-effect information. For fairness, the Food and Drug Administration requires the commercials to disclose potential risks of prescription drugs, so vulnerable patients aren’t deluded into hoping for miracle cures.

“All of these warnings are confusing consumers,” said Miller, who wants prescription ads to become “a little less like sitting in a classroom and getting lectured. We don’t want consumers saying, ‘Look at all that bad stuff – I’m going to go get some ginkgo and hope for the best.'”

Some drug makers are considering turning to commercials that merely urge disease sufferers to “ask your doctor about the latest treatment” or call a drug company for information, said Ron Corey of Pharmacia & Upjohn. If a drug’s benefits aren’t touted in ads, side effects don’t have to be listed.

Indeed, a new Pfizer commercial shows couples dancing romantically and simply says, “Ask your doctor about Viagra.” “It’s just less difficult to do this way,” Miller said.

“Ask your doctor about the latest treatment” – I don’t know about you Mrs. Jones but I would not put these poisons in my body. It’s your health.

Source: Nando Times, click for complete AP article