On the flipside of pharma marketing disclaimers

I was looking for a good example to illustrate my last post regarding excessive disclaimers on pharma ads and came across this video.



It's produced by Prescriptionforchange.com a site dedicated to the safe, affordable and effective consumer drugs. They focus a great deal on critiquing marketing efforts by pharma companies. Much of what they're striving for is needed reform in our country's health care system--a larger role for government in unbiased research, FDA reform, affordable medicine. One noteworthy focus I noticed on their blog is adding more disclaimers (and to be fair in some instances more accurate disclaimers)to the already hyper-long list of disclaimers at the end of pharma ads. What I find troubling about this is that more information isn't always best. I would not presume for an investment company to give me all the details of their available investments and expect me to come up with a valuable investment plan, likewise with any other professional advice. Advocates act as if the DTC conversation happens in a vacuum. The truth is that none of these drugs may be consumed without a Dr.'s prescription. I haven't met a Dr. yet who will take my list of desired drugs and just write out prescriptions without a conversation.

At the end of my visit the Dr. will prescribe the medications the Dr. considers to be appropriate and necessary for my illness. I have very little negotiation power on this and I can be pretty persuasive. All I'm saying is that we can't ignore that consumers have no access to prescription drugs without a prescription and we can't ignore the conversation between a Dr and the patient.

There is much to fix in our industry, but adding more disclaimers to a blur of words at the end of a TV commercial or flip side of a magazine ad is not the solution. Pharma ad disclaimers have become the punchline of many a joke and have lost the impact they are meant to have in a see of legalese.

Still, this is a funny video especially the part on the pharma ad disclaimers.