Big pharma marketers and magazine publishers are both feeling a little feverish these days as they face an uncertain future frought with everything from tighter restrictions on advertising to game-changing competition from new media.
With healthcare now a burning national issue, lawmakers are taking aim at the tax deduction on ad expenses for prescription drugs, while TV ads for drugs like Viagra are coming under scrutiny. Even before President Obama took office, magazine publishers noticed a falloff in pharma spending, which some took as a harbinger of a stricter regulatory climate. Some pharmaceutical brands—including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Merck—declared a moratorium on advertising for new drugs last year.
Direct-to-consumer drug advertising has long been politically sensitive, but since the Food & Drug Administration relaxed its rules for drug ads on TV in 1997, spending has ballooned, much to the delight of consumer magazines. Between 2003-’08, the drugs/remedy category soared 58 percent to $2.2 billion, per the Publishers Information Bureau, making it second only to toiletries and cosmetics in terms of money spent buying magazine space.
“It’s still a very robust category for us,” said Stephanie George, president of Time Inc. ad sales and marketing, and evp, Time Inc. “Print is considered…educational. You can still tear out that page and bring it to your doctor. It’s a top-of-funnel medium. And that’s not going away. With patent windows closing, [drug-makers] have to spend.”
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