Legal News

With pharmaceutical companies pushing (and often far exceeding) the legal boundaries of drug marketing, many consumers wonder how to cut through the misinformation. Even ads within the rules often leave consumers less informed than they were before. One tool to help diagnose and treat the deception is Consumer Reports' AdWatch.

CR AdWatch steps through specific commercials, taking time-outs to explain background and unexplained elements within the barrage of information and persuasion in television drug ads. In addition to important information left out of the ads, AdWatch points out reasons behind methods used in the ads. For example, it points out that not mentioning the name of a drug, but instead directing viewers to a website that specifically markets the drug without having to list its side effects.

The ads dissected include pitches for Abilify, Boniva, Chantix, Cialis, Requip, Rozerem, Seasonique, and others. AdWatch also includes a piece taking apart some of the ads advocating or criticizing health care reform, along with pieces on other food supplement and health topics..

To learn about some of the drugs being pushed at use through less than informative ads, as well as an entertaining glimpse at how drugs are advertized, AdWatch is a useful tool.

Here is the CR AdWatch page. And here is their piece on the Abilify ad we've all been seeing for a while:

• Big Pharma Paying Doctors to Promote Drugs: Where is the Line? (FindLaw's Common Law)
• Pfizer's 'Off-Label' Marketing of Bextra Draws Record Breaking Fines (FindLaw's Common Law)
• Deceptive Drug Ads [video] (Time)