For all the talk about directing advertising dollars toward the Internet, a few obvious places may have been overlooked. Such as telephone poles. After all, these can be found just about anywhere and it doesn’t cost much to tack up an ad.
As you can see, this one is for the Zyrtec allergy med, which [...]

Yesterday, we wrote that a new study found the accuracy of ads for antidepressants and antipsychotics often make claims that can’t be verified and attempts to obtain data cited in the ads from the drugmakers were rarely successful. The study, which examined the accuracy of 69 ads that appeared in four widely read medical journals [...]

Last week, we noted that an essay in Slate suggested the relationship between medical journals and advertisers can be, well, a bit gamey. And so there was a proposal that journals start disclosing the revenue received from a company whose drug or device is discussed, and provide details about the number of ad pages or [...]

In a rather pointed essay in Slate, Kent Sepkowitz, a New York City physician, argues that ’scientific fraud comes in several varities.’ Such as? The relationship between medical journals and advertisers. And he proposes that journals start disclosing the revenue received from a company whose drug or device is discussed, and provide detail about the [...]

That’s the argument made by ad consultant Lee Weinblatt, whose firm, PreTesting, recently developed a system that records what’s known as saccadic eye motion - the involuntary flicks and darts of the eye - as consumers watch television commercials and read billboards or print advertising, reports The Star-Ledger of New Jersey (which owns Pharmalot).
After years [...]

Not surprisingly, big drugmakers - especially those with lots of over-the-counter products - are among the companies that spend the most on advertising. And the latest annual ranking from Advertising Age makes that clear.
Last year, Glaxo was the 7th largest, spending $2.4 billion, and Johnson & Johnson came in 9th with $2.3 billion in [...]

In a bid to appear communicative, concerned and transparent, PhRMA created an Office of Accountability two years ago to collect comments about compliance with its 15 ‘Guiding Principles’ on DTC ads. The office is supposed to forward remarks to drugmakers, and issue periodic reports to the public about these comments and what, if anything, drugmakers [...]

That’s right. A new survey indicates that new ads for Sepracor’s Lunesta and Takeda’s Rozerem - both are sleeping pills, for those who didn’t know - are among the top five recalled by television viewers.
Lunesta’s advertising, in fact, captures the #1 and #2 ranking, and are recalled much more than the average new prescription ad [...]

Picking on drugmakers is something of a sport these days, and YouTube is fast becoming a choice venue. The more popular videos are from PharmedOut, in which a former Lilly rep lays bare detailing tricks, and the Media Education Foundation, which produced ‘Big Bucks, Big Pharma,’ a critical 46-minute documentary.
These videos worry pharma, “because there [...]

Four big drugmakers are proposing to launch a television station in Europe to tell the public about their drugs, amid strenuous lobbying across Europe by the industry for an end to restrictions aimed at protecting patients. Pharma TV would be a dedicated interactive digital channel funded by the industry with health news and features but, [...]