Smiling people holding hands. Walking on the beach. Inexplicable doves flying through blue skies. Terrible side effects discussed cheerily by a honey-voiced narrator.... That's right, this post is about direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. Niam Hardimh, writing at Crooked Timber, shares one of the odd things about living in the US -- for those who aren't used to our TV:
One thing that is striking, compared with European TV, is what is advertised and how. In particular, I don’t think you see ads for prescription medicines in Europe, certainly not in Ireland or the UK. They seem to be all over American TV.
I am particularly struck by the way these ads are made. The visuals typically show someone having a happy and trouble-free life while using these drugs, overlaid with soothing music and a reassuringly bland voice-over. But clearly the US FDA requires advertisers to include all the small print in their ads as well.
Do you read all the known downsides of the medicines you take? Don’t...
It's easy to become habituated to these since they're everywhere, but it hasn't always been that way, and in most places it still isn't -- the US and New Zealand are the only two countries that allow direct advertising of drugs. Here's an exemplary ad for Vioxx, which was pulled off the market because it caused health problems (which Merck systematically lied about):
Ice skating. A minor celebrity. Inspiring music. They even note that "Vioxx specifically targets the Cox2 enzyme." How many Americans can even define what an enzyme is? I'm sure consumers are more likely to remember that than the mentioned side effects ("bleeding can occur without warning")... Other lovely examples include this other ad for Vioxx, and one for Zocor.
For more examples and some background on how the ads came to be, check out "Sick of pharmaceutical ads: here's why they won't go away" on io9.