Drug Ads in Decline

March 14, 2006

“With all the sex in ads this is the one place where we can’t use sex,” laments Andrew Schirmer, managing director of McCann Humancare, an agency specializing in health care ads. Schirmer has the daunting task of creating a new ad campaign for Viagra, Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction drug, at a time when consumers are skeptical of drug commercials. Trying to stay ahead of demands for new government regulation, pharmaceutical companies are adopting voluntary guidelines to improve the accuracy and balance of ads. But the move may be, as Gary Messplay, a lawyer who represents drug companies, says, a little too little, a little too late.”

According to a study released last year by the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 18 percent of consumers believe pharmaceutical ads can be trusted “most of the time.” Schirmer, though, is more concerned about his ads not standing out in the crowded field of drug ads. “There is just a lot of safeness out there now,” said Schirmer. “We can’t get the hot shot creative types we could two years ago and that horrifies me.” Perhaps instead of worrying about snagging the “hot shot” ad reps, he should concern himself with regaining the consumers lost confidence.