[1]We were reading in USA Today [2], uh, today that the current backlash against the potential dangers of prescription drugs may well cause pharmaceutical companies to be more careful about how they advertise. Sadly, this probably means that the peculiar yin-yang of prescription drug advertising will soon be a goner, as in: this drug will help you sleep, improve your sex life and stop embarrassing halitosis [3], if you don't mind that it just might kill you. But, according to the story, there's another reason drug ads could change—they just aren't working the way they used to. Despite a 28 percent jump in ad spending between 2003 and 2004, the recall figures for direct-to-consumer ads are down, according to a report by Manhattan Research [4]. The answer to both pressures on such advertising, experts say, will probably be ads that talk about certain medical conditions and encourage consumers to seek out more information, from the Internet and other sources. Snore. One last thing—before you all write in to mention that the Viagra ad pictured here has already been pulled [5], we're aware of that. We'll just use any excuse we can to run the visual of the guy with the horns again.
—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor