Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2968

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

Phillips JS.
Drug advertisements
New Zealand Medical Journal 1978; 87:102-103

Abstract:

The analysis of information in journal advertisements may be incorrect because the author may not have distinguished between “reminderâ€ ads and “completeâ€ ads. The former contains no claims for a preparation other than to nominate a major therapeutic indication and does not have to provide detailed information. There has been a steady improvement in the quality of complete advertisements. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assocation will take action against companies that violate provisions of its Code of Practice.

Keywords:
*letter to the editor/New Zealand/ journal advertisements/ Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (NZ)/ regulation of promotion/ quality of information/ Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry (NZ)/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: JOURNAL ADVERTISEMENTS/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: COMPLIANCE, SANCTIONS, STANDARDS/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION

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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