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The End of DTC as We Know It
Posted: January 10, 2005During the presidential election campaign of 2004, several pharma industry trade publications suggested that if Kerry/Edwards won the election, DTC (Direct to Consumer) ads for drugs would be banned. To be sure, Edwards did sponsor a bill that would have required DTC ads to include comparisions to competing products.However, it may be the ads themselves that kill the golden goose.
ED agesTake for example ads for the Erectile Dysfunction (ED) drugs Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra. As I mentioned in a previous Pharma Marketing News editorial (see "Pushing the Envelope is Bad for DTC"), these ads are focusing on younger and younger men who are clearly not part of the typical ED demographic category with regard to age. I plotted the trend in a graph, estimating the age of the characters in these ads over the years (see graph at right).