Healthy Skepticism Library item: 4445

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

Watts MR, Wilkenfeld JD.
The role of the Federal Trade Commission in regulating non-prescription drug advertising and promotion
Journal of Drug Issues 1992; 22:265-276

Abstract:

This article focuses on the manner in which the Federal Trade Commission regulates advertising in general and over-the-counter drug advertising in particular. It also highlights the cooperation that exists between the Commission and the Food and Drug Administration in both food and drug matters.

Keywords:
*analysis/United States/Food and Drug Administration/FDA/Federal Trade Commission/regulation of promotion/over-the-counter medications/ATTITUDES REGARDING PROMOTION: REGULATORS AND GOVERNMENT/PROMOTION IN SPECIFIC THERAPEUTIC AREAS: OTC MEDICATIONS/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: COMPLIANCE, SANCTIONS, STANDARDS/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: DIRECT GOVERNMENT 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