You know who has the easiest job?

DickGrabrod

Advertisers for pharmeceuticals.

All they have to do for TV ads is write 10 seconds of copy and let the disclaimers fill out the rest.

Tre

I know, right?

It's like most of the ad is taken up by warnings about the symptoms and side effects caused by the pill.

Misery

Yeah. Must be a good job.

Princess Alice

They also don't have to bother trying to explain what the drug is meant to treat or what it does. Just show some images of happy women followed by the phrase "Ask your doctor."

Anonus

Yeah, in 1999...haven't prescription drug ads gotten more detailed since then?

Mother's told me that the FDA used to disallow pharmaceutical companies from including any explanation about prescription drugs in their TV ads. I think it was to prevent deceptive marketing, but disallowing any explanation at all has always struck me as stupid because the resulting ads tended to be vague.

lee4hmz

It was not so much about deceptive marketing as that the regulations on advertising prescription drugs have always been pretty strict. I remember reading Medical Economics back in the late 1980s, a magazine aimed at doctors themselves and one of the few places where prescription drugs were advertised at all then, and the ads there were either vague admonitions to "dispense as written" (usually from the makers of a drug that was about to go generic), or the full two-or-three-page spread, complete with the entire PI leaflet (with the chemical structure and everything) reprinted verbatim, in tiny type.

The idea was that laypersons had no business knowing about prescription drugs unless they knew everything -- even if they didn't understand it. The supposition was that the walls of text and precise medical descriptions used in those old ads would confuse normal people enough to either drop the subject or ask their doctor like they were supposed to. 

But the drug companies were coming out with new, expensive designer drugs, and they wanted to make their development budget back faster. This meant direct marketing, but with the FDA rules, they would have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to print 3-page spreads in magazine with much wider circulation (and higher ad rates) than a niche product like Medical Economics. Also, it mean any TV ads would necessarily become infomercials, with most of the time dedicated to reading off the PI -- and you want people to bug their doctors for this, not know how to prescribe it! :lol:

So they had to stay vague about it. Eventually they were able to convince the FDA to allow TV ads as long as the major side effects and caveats were mentioned, but even before then, the whole designer-drug thing would bite them in the ass because of fen-phen.

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Justice4243

...What channel are you guys watching that shows vibrator commercials?

Obā-san

The best channel.

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sunn wolf

you know who has the easiest job?

Comic Sans MS

lee4hmz

It's one of those commercials where it's obviously a sex aid, but they bite their tongues just enough that the networks will carry the ad without complaint. They usually show up late at night alongside the ads for penis pills and dodgy "chat" lines.

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Ace Rimmer

My country doesn''t adverts that are about selling pharmaceuticals.

Misery

I wish I had that job!

Bunny

It's great that your country doesn't adverts, but how does a country adverts?

Ace Rimmer

Shush, my brain is very tired.

I meant to say My country doesn't allow adverts are about selling pharmaceuticals

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