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Healthy Skepticism Library item: 614

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

 

Publication type: Journal Article

Kopp SW.
Direct-to-consumer advertising and consumer prescription prices
Drug Information Journal 1996; 30:59-65


Abstract:

Virtually all published empirical research regarding direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) has focused on the communicational aspects of the advertising message. At the same time, and without direct evidence, debate has continued regarding the potential effects of DTCA on consumer prices. The present study is intended to provide insight into part of this debate, and to contribute information which may help in weighing the costs and benefits of DTCA. This study will briefly describe what is called the “dual stage” theory and its application in other product categories. The discussion will address the potential for relatively lower consumer prices of advertised brands as a result of manufacturers’ consumer-directed promotions.

Keywords:
*mathematical modeling United States direct-to-consumer advertising consumer drug prices INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: CONSUMER DRUG COSTS PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER ADVERTISING

 

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Cases of wilful misrepresentation are a rarity in medical advertising. For every advertisement in which nonexistent doctors are called on to testify or deliberately irrelevant references are bunched up in [fine print], you will find a hundred or more whose greatest offenses are unquestioning enthusiasm and the skill to communicate it.

The best defence the physician can muster against this kind of advertising is a healthy skepticism and a willingness, not always apparent in the past, to do his homework. He must cultivate a flair for spotting the logical loophole, the invalid clinical trial, the unreliable or meaningless testimonial, the unneeded improvement and the unlikely claim. Above all, he must develop greater resistance to the lure of the fashionable and the new.
- Pierre R. Garai (advertising executive) 1963