In addition, with each passing day consumers become more adept at evaluating and selecting health information from competing sources, weeding out the questionable content from the material they feel they can trust. DTC messages compete with more than just ads for other products in the same therapeutic category. Increasingly, consumers are also measuring them against the huge array of other sources of information about the product and the condition it treats. That means DTC ads need to compare favorably in the major areas consumers use as litmus tests in deciding which health information to act on and which information to ignore. For one thing, DTC ads compete against many sources of information that consumers have come to regard as unbiased and objective.
Consumers are already highly skeptical about what they see on TV and read in magazines.
Consumers know they should take much of what they see and read with a grain of salt or even dismiss it entirely. Therefore, a pharmaceutical company must approach its DTC campaign with a sincere effort to provide the consumer with the information needed to make a realistic assessment of whether a product s benefits outweigh its possible risks. A DTC message need not list every last side effect nor dwell on the negative aspects of the product. In fact, such an ad would be more useful to a consumer than an ad that glossed over the adverse effects. Consumers want a balanced, fair presentation of the pluses and minuses so they can make the most informed decision possible about a product.