Direct To Consumer Advertising

Despite this, the industry did not alter its ways, maintaining that its ad campaigns were "educational," and that people were able to make their own decisions about what they purchased (Payer 66). However, it is evident that the advertisements produced by the pharmaceutical industry are designed for the very purpose of making it difficult for people to make these decisions independently. This marketing produces a large number of often deceptive, misleading tactics which have a large influence on both consumers and medical practitioners. The chief beneficiaries of this marketing are not the consumers but the pharmaceutical companies themselves.

Anyone who has stayed up late watching television, or has paged through a current magazine, has seen advertisements for medications. They often depict an individual, or couple, that is strolling along the beach, playing with their grandchildren, or enjoying a long forgotten hobby. Although the Food and Drug Administration has imposed stricter regulations on drug advertisements over the last several years, there remains an innate distraction and misleading by the drug companies in order to promote their product. “Evidence suggests that direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs increases pharmaceutical sales and both helps to avert underuse of medicines and leads to potential overuse” (Donohue, Cevasco, & Rosenthal, 2007, p. 673). This paper will critique both a prescription and over-the-counter medication advertisement, discuss the pathophysiology and mechanism of action for the gastrointestinal disorder it treats, as well as compare and contrast the two advertisements.

Direct to consumer is a form of advertising that markets directly to consumers bypassing the distributor. In the mid 1980’s pharmaceutical

Bill Maher once mocked the aggressive nature of the drug advertisements that direct you to tell your doctor that their drug is right for you. “Tell your doctor? Shouldn’t your doctor tell you what drugs you need. When you tell your doctor isn’t he just a dealer at that point,” said Bill Maher. The American public generally trusts their government to protect them from the hidden dangers prescription and over-the-counter drugs. However, that trust isn’t fully warranted as the FDA has been featured in the GAO report of “high risk” agencies which need drastic reforms. After all, the FDA is in charge of regulating the shameless drug advertisements that inundate the airwaves.

The United States and New Zealand are the only developed countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising. Whether the practice of direct to consumer advertising is beneficial to the consumers or not is a highly debated subject with both positions presenting sound reasoning for their position. Whether the practice is beneficial or not to the consumer is not the question, but rather, is advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers ethical? To analyze this question I will use Rawls’s second principle of distributive justice for analysis.

A lot of the direct-to-consumer advertisement research uses antidepressant medication ads as their variable of choice since that is the medication most advertised on both television and in print. However, there are very few advertisements for non-medication based intervention even though it has been show to be just as effective in the treatment of depression. This is because the companies that provide these interventions do not have the budget that the pharmaceutical companies possess. If given the money to create an advertisement to highlight integrated care, psychoeducation, and the role of the social worker, a cognitive behavioral therapy group focused on depression would be the intervention and diagnoses the campaign would promote. If successful, then the campaign would be branched out to other diagnosis.

This paper takes the stand that direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of pharmaceutical drugs is unethical. This stand is based on the belief that many developed countries in the world have banned such kind of advertising because they believe that it is unethical. I believe that the advertising of pharmaceutical drugs is unethical because it gives consumers hope that a specific drug can cure their disease. However, this might not be the case as only a qualified medical practitioner can prescribe the right medication to treat a particular disease or condition. This is a major issue given that many consumers might prefer to be treated with an advertized pharmaceutical drug, yet it might not be the best drug for their specific ailment. It is believed

Do you feel guilty? Have a recent loss of interest in things you normally enjoy? Unexplained weight gain or weight loss? Trouble getting up in the morning? Do you notice that for no reason you start crying? Slowness in activity or thought? If so, you may be suffering from depression. Sound familiar? It’s just missing one thing, the name of the drug that’s going to alleviate depression signs and symptoms, and a long list of adverse reactions. This kind of marketing is known as Direct-To-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs. Every day the public is exposed to constant advertisements promising that this drug is the answer to their ills and ailments; all they need to do is ask their doctor if this drug is right for them. Consumers

America's population is aging, leading to the need for more elder care services. One service most individuals will need at one time or another is legal aid. A person may need assistance with estate planning and administration, guardianship, conservatorship and commitment matters and long term care matters. Attorneys offering elder care services need to ensure individuals needing this type of help know where to turn for assistance and direct mail can be of great help in getting the word out about one's practice.

Advertisements have one primary purpose that is to persuade. Prescription medications Ads tell the consumers to get treatment and also imply that they have the need for it to solve their problems. Since prescription Ads have been introduced, the pharmaceutical

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) marketing of prescription drugs in America has been debatable. DTC marketing has its benefits and disadvantages. There has been much discussion with DTC marketing over the role of consumers in medical decision making, the appropriateness of consumers engaging in self-diagnosis, and the ethics of an industry promoting potentially harmful drugs. Drug marketing and federal policy governing drug marketing have both responded to and reinforced changes in the consumer's role in health care and in the doctor patient relationship over time. A benefit of direct marketing of prescription drugs is that patients have a direct route of being informed instead of having to visit the doctors and have a third party involved. DTC allows

Ads have existed for so long for a reason, there’s really not another alternative as effective in trying to introduce someone to a product, movement, or idea. The particular smoking ad from an organization called Health Canada created an Ad that clearly shows the negative effects of smoking cigarettes, not only that, but they also try to give aid to those who are looking to quit their detrimental habit; they carry out this goal of informing and persuading users to quit or abide from starting, by using many elements which include purpose, photo, text, and content. This Ad was great to analyze since it’s easy to define what the media is trying to portray, as well as to it having distinct images making it intriguing to question and inspect.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing of pharmaceuticals has grown increasingly in the past decade. The American public views prescription drug advertising for a wide range of medical conditions, including high cholesterol, depression, allergies, and erectile dysfunction. The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the content of these advertisements. Critics also have taken the position that the advertisements garner unearned trust from the public, are misleading, and promote unnecessary use of prescription drugs for common problems associated with aging. Proponents counter that DTC ads help eliminate stigmas associated with certain medical conditions, give patients an active role in their health care management, and

Sometimes it’s not so important that your product fits the exact needs of the segment you target; rather, it’s vital that customers perceive that you do, even if it’s not true. In order to achieve this, the proper amount of advertising and sending the appropriate message are both vital.

Consumers have wants and needs, and the most popular way to get those products known to consumers is advertising. Advertising provides the consumers with important information about the products and or services. Plus, how would the consumers know about things if they were not advertised in a particular way. Advertisements educate the consumers about the positive and negative effect of a product. For example, a medical, commercial may across your television or you may even see an ad about it in a magazine, throughout that ad the marketer will explain to you the good that