Opinion ID: 1897541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

Text: It is paradoxical that so pedestrian a concern as male-pattern baldness should have signaled the beginning of direct-toconsumer marketing of prescription drugs. Upjohn Company became the first drug manufacturer to advertise directly to consumers when it advertised for Rogaine, a hair-loss treatment. Jon D. Hanson & Douglas A. Kysar, Taking Behavioralism Seriously: Some Evidence of Market Manipulation, 112 Harv. L.Rev. 1420, 1456 (1999). The ad targeted male consumers by posing the question, Can an emerging bald spot ... damage your ability to get along with others, influence your chance of obtaining a job or date or even interfere with your job performance? Ibid. (footnotes omitted). A related ad featured an attractive woman asserting suggestively, I know that a man who can afford Rogaine is a man who can afford me. Ibid. (footnote omitted). Advertising for Rogaine was the tip of the iceberg. Since drug manufacturers began marketing directly to consumers for products such as prescription drugs in the 1980s, almost all pharmaceutical companies have engaged in this direct marketing practice. Ibid. (footnote omitted). Consider the following example: A hot-air balloon floats lazily across the backdrop of a beautiful, cloudless, sunny sky. Cole Porter sings in the background, Blue skies smiling at me[.] Nothing but blue skies do I see. A kind voice instructs the viewer to see your doctor about Claritin (R) because a clear answer is out there. This advertisement for Claritin (R), a nondrowsy prescription antihistamine, aired prior to the ... (FDA's) release of new direct-to-consumer (DTC) broadcast advertising guidelines in August 1997. The viewer often was bewildered because the clear answer about what Claritin (R) treated was not in the otherwise well-produced thirty-second television advertisement. [Kelly N. Reeves, Direct-to-Consumer Broadcast Advertising: Empowering the Consumer or Manipulating a Vulnerable Population?, 53 Food & Drug L.J. 661, 661 (1998) (footnotes omitted).] These campaigns bring to `bear all the slick pressure of which Madison Avenue is capable'. Hanson & Kysar, supra, 112 Harv. L.Rev. at 1456 (footnote omitted). Pressure on consumers is an integral part of drug manufacturers' marketing strategy. From 1995 to 1996, drug companies increased advertising directed to consumers by ninety percent. Bob Van Voris, Drug Ads Could Spell Legal Trouble[.] Consumer Campaigns May Result in Greater Liability, Nat'l L.J., July 21, 1997, at B1. In 1997, advertising costs of pharmaceutical products surpassed the half-billion dollar mark for the first time, easily outpacing promotional efforts directed to physicians. Lars Noah, Advertising Prescription Drugs to Consumers: Assessing the Regulatory and Liability Issues, 32 Ga. L.Rev. 141, 141 (1997) (footnote omitted). John F. Kamp, senior vice president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said that prescription drug companies spent $1.3 billion on print and broadcast advertising aimed at consumers last year, up from $843 million in 1997.... Robert Pear, Drug Companies Getting F.D.A. Reprimands for False or Misleading Advertising, N.Y. Times, Mar. 28, 1999, at 28. These efforts are not just an essential part of manufacturers' marketing plans; they are an extremely successful one. As of December 1998, because of its testimonials in print and broadcast media by renowned personalities, sales of a product that treats male impotence had increased to $788 million, with approximately 7.5 million prescriptions having been written. Jay P. Speivack, Direct Ads May Create Liability Dangers. Consumer Advertising by Drug Manufacturers Has Reopened the Issue of Expanded Liability., Nat'l L.J., Mar. 15, 1999, at B7 n. 1. Without vouching for every decimal point in the discussion, the following is a summary of changes in pharmaceutical marketing. [Significant technological] advances in [medical] treatment have been accompanied by significant increases in the cost of health care. It is estimated that in 1996, Americans spent more than $1 trillion on health care products and services. Health care is the single largest business in the United States, representing 14% of the gross domestic product. Health care expenses comprise the largest single area of non-government spending. Corresponding with the financial burdens attendant to our modern health care system, a fundamental change has taken place in the way Americans pay for their health care [from individuallyfunded to third-party-funded health care].... These fundamental changes have drastically altered the delivery of health care services.