Here’s a drug ad petition to make the FDA require that drug ads on TV have a toll-free number so that people can call in and report problems they are having with those drugs being over-advertised, and requiring more of a detailed disclosure of the side effects that the drugs have, and the prevalence of those side effects.
Personally I’d like to ban all these drug ads (especially the new drugs which haven’t been around long enough to know what their long-term side effects are going to be), same as the alcohol ads and cigarette ads were banned for the public good, back in the 1970’s. I remember TV ads for Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker Red, and Marlborough cigarettes. We should relegate Viagra and harmful psych drug ads to the same ash-heap of advertising history.
What do you think? Is that too unfair? Maybe we should require that only 5-year old drugs can be advertised on TV — that way the new ones aren’t rushed into the advertising pipeline. What with drug companies settling for billions of dollars for pushing new drugs that CREATE diabetes in those taking them, after ignoring all unfavorable testing of the drug during its testing phase, this may be the prudent thing to do.
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