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Efforts to Ban Drug Commercials on Radio

Elsewhere on this forum there is constant kvetching about all the layoffs in radio and other media. If DTC pharmaceutical advertising is prohibited, will there be even more pressure to cut costs with another revenue stream cut off? It's not like there's a long line of potential advertisers to take their place.
 
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JJSPC said:
Can we also get rid of the television spots where everyone showed is so happy and carefree, while at the bottom of the screen are shown all the side effects that potentially can kill you?
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The Cologaurd one is disturbing. The box seems way to happy about what going to happen to it.
 
The funny part is that the proposed ban is only for prescription drugs. So snake oil treatments are fine. Balance of Nature doesn't require a prescription. A lot of the drug ads people can remember would still be legal. The only ones that wouldn't are the ones that have lengthy disclaimers and promote drug names they can't remember. I can imagine a pretty obvious legal challenge to such a law. If the drugs require a prescription, how is the ad unsafe? The product has been approved for sale. The seller has stated that one must consult with a physician. Perhaps that wording needs to be strengthened. But it's hard to make a case that these ads are any more unsafe than ads for beer or alcohol.
 
There was an interesting study done by a union representing paper mill workers in Maine. The employer was struggling to maintain employee health benefits so the union brought in a cost consultant to make an analysis and issue a report. They discovered that some obscene amount of money was being spent on the five prescription drugs that were being most heavily advertised. The two problems with pharma advertising are 1) whether or not a drug is prescribed ought to be determined by the doctor based on his or her professional opinion and not driven by consumer demand, and 2) as this study indicates such ads are needlessly driving up healthcare costs.

Of course banning these ads will just aggravate an already bleak revenue picture for broadcasters.
 
Do we even have pharmaceutical ads on radio, with the required lengthy disclaimers? I can't say I've heard one. From time to time, pharmaceutical ads have been mentioned on this board as a possible revenue source for oldies radio, but we've determined those ads, with disclaimers, would not work on audio-only
 
gr8oldies said:
Do we even have pharmaceutical ads on radio, with the required lengthy disclaimers?
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Yes, I'm sure we've all been treated to hearing "Low Rider" mangled into "Slow GA":

www.fiercepharma.com

Astellas cruises into first DTC campaign for geographic atrophy treatment Izervay

Astellas Pharma is slowing things down in the inaugural consumer-facing marketing blast for eye disease drug Izervay. | Astellas Pharma is slowing things down in the inaugural consumer-facing marketing blast for eye disease drug Izervay.
www.fiercepharma.com www.fiercepharma.com
 
I hear plenty of ads for pharmaceuticals on talk radio and news radio. Sports radio as well sometimes. Obviously, Radio is making money off of the ads. The pharma ads vary from the pancreatic ailment solution to the one where they shoot something in your eye.

Obviously, pharma thinks Radio is still a good advertising medium. I've heard some spots (probably PSA's) for flu shots and pneumonia vaccines.

I don't watch TV, but from what I understand, it's the same with a lot of TV.

If governments tighten regulations on these sorts of ads, Radio and TV will have one less source of income. Looks like some of the proposed state laws will hit other media as well, including digital. Not exactly great for the media during economic jitters.
 
i-zer-vay keep it going slower has played so many times on Coast to Coast AM i'm getting the izervay symptom of my eye severing (izervaying) out of real frustration it's like even on cable it's all these medications with silly names with what concoction of language or real material makes the chemical name so confusing & dumb long but these med companies are wild like it's only in the USA, New Zealand, and somewhere else that allows these med ads like seriously, ya need something, your doctor will tell you exactly so .
 
I should probably start a topic under TV. They finally did a drug commercial correctly.

I don't remember which drug now but they start by showing people having fun and then the screen goes black and there are serious messages with no audio. Which of course wouldn't work on radio.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I should probably start a topic under TV. They finally did a drug commercial correctly.

I don't remember which drug now but they start by showing people having fun and then the screen goes black and there are serious messages with no audio. Which of course wouldn't work on radio.
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If you don't remember the name of the drug, the commercial was useless.
 


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