Why are there so many pharmaceutical commercials on tv? What is the point?
I have been putting off writing about this particular topic because I wasn’t sure how it fit in with my school and the themes revolving around a lack of common sense in society. However, after a difficult night sleeping (we are currently in a fire zone and being rained on with ash), I thought of my angle. When we become aware of a pattern, and we don’t know its significance, should we ignore it, or should we drill down and learn to ask the right questions? Obviously, I fell on the latter so let’s use this as fodder for a little thought exercise.
Advertising is putting something in front of people, making them aware of its existence, and then using tricks to try and convince them they need (or want) that something. They try and make it cool or exciting or essential for your life. That your status as a person rests on having this thing or service or whatever. Apple is very good at this. You aren’t always buying the product so much as you are becoming part of the “cool” Apple experience. It is not just a brand, it’s a style. It obviously works because companies spend around $425 billion a year on advertising alone. (Just as an aside, can you think of any one thing you ever bought or started solely because you saw/heard a commercial for it?). Ok, advertising works and the best advertising targets the demographic (specific users) that are most likely to use the product, service, etc. Makes little sense to market to people who don’t or can’t use your product. Right?
Last year, the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) released a study that showed Big Pharma spends more on ads pushing lower benefit drugs than high benefit ones (after reviewing the top 150 prescriptions in 2020). This led to a few journalists in Forbes and other sources to write some stories questioning why we are seeing so many of these commercials now. Vox thinks drug companies are trying to get people to learn the names of the drugs, and then get a more or less vague idea of what they do or at least what type of body part or condition they work on. The general consensus is these commercials are aimed at the consumer, not the clinicians who would prescribe the drug. A person would go to a doctor and request this particular drug.
From the business side, maybe this makes sense. You are struggling to sell some of your products, so you spend more on advertising to try and increase sales. You don’t need to hype your best product if it is already selling (not always true, cough cough Coke, but reasonable enough). Also, if you know clinicians are less likely to prescribe a particular drug because it has lower benefits to the public, you try and skip them and go straight to the consumer. You hope they will try and argue for taking a particular drug over another. It must work because Big Pharma is spending over $6 billion a year on direct-to-consumer advertising or why would they be doing it?
From a health perspective, how does it make sense to spend the most money and effort pushing drugs that have the least beneficial qualities? Why do we want the layperson arguing with their highly trained and expert doctor on what drug is best for them to take for a particular ailment? Do they know if it reacts with other drugs, has harmful side effects, or any of a huge list of bad things that can happen if a layperson prescribes themselves a drug based on what they saw on TV? How ethical is this considering most counties forbid drug companies from advertising drugs on places like TV, social media, etc. (essentially direct-to-the-consumer). Only here in the US is that ok.
From a commonsense standpoint, it gets a murkier. Most of the drugs you see advertised are for a disease or other ailments that affects a very small portion of our population. Because of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies, these drug companies must list any and all side effects that have come up during clinical trials and cannot tout these drugs as “miracle cures” instead of the snake oil they often are. I mean the side effects are often (if you can discern the disease or condition the drug is for) far worse than what you were originally afflicted with. But everybody in the commercial is smiling and going to BBQs or just out living their life. Now, in fairness, any ailment a person goes through during clinical trials must be disclosed regardless of whether the drug had anything to do with it. Still, some of these drugs (especially if you read the tiny print at the bottom of the commercial) are pretty rough on people. Maybe go back to the drawing board a little before getting the public to go argue with their doctor about what drug they think is right for them.
From a conspiracy standpoint, things get really interesting. The prevailing theory (and there are many) is the rise in drug commercials is actually a payoff to various networks (and their news staffs) to not look into or focus on the litany of mistakes being made by pharmaceutical companies. The lawsuits are enormous and plentiful but how often do you really see a hard-hitting piece attacking the careless health practices of these mega businesses. Ok, maybe this is true, maybe it isn’t but the reasoning is solid. They argue why would someone advertise a product that impacts a tiny proportion of the viewing audience with a difficult to remember name (couldn’t they just call it Bob?), poorly defined target organ/symptoms/disease, and a complete inability to buy this product without the approval of a doctor who should be making the decision and not you? As we mentioned above, this seems like bad advertising and a big waste of money for very little return (more buying customers). The other big conspiracy I could find is this is actually just a big psyop by those supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion to get people accustomed to seeing things the way they want them to be seen in society. I think their reasoning is because every drug commercial is very, very politically correct (checks all the boxes on representation) and if you constantly put those in front of the public, they acclimate. I guess.
In 2022, the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies made over $112 billion in profits. Americans paid some of the highest prices in the world for these prescription drugs, such that 1 in 4 Americans could not afford their prescription. These same companies are also the most fined, paying out over $62 billion in the last 30 years. Just some quick math shows (not adjusting for inflation or other variables) profit in the TRILLIONS of dollars profit over those same 30 years. Seems like some very friendly math for any business. Maybe $6 billion is no big deal to these companies. Maybe any press is good press. There must be a reason.
Look, I wish I knew the answer to this little puzzle. I do. Awareness is an important part of our lives and having a good thought experiment is key to keeping up with the world. Don’t ignore the signs, the patterns, the ill-fitting parts of life in favor of not knowing the answer. Challenge yourself daily to explore and critically think about everything in life. Including the commercials!
