Selling Prescription Drugs in Sitcoms?

Having worked for Cutting Edge Information over the past few years, I have paid closer attention to some of the marketing tactics big pharmaceutical companies are using to promote their brands through DTC (direct-to-consumer) television and print channels.

I always thought this was a crazy concept -- drug companies placing ad spots in hopes that average peeps like you and I will so badly want a prescription that we would hint to our physicians that we want it -- despite the life-threatening side effects often tagged to the end of such adverts. Is it not insulting to a physician when patients come into their office and suggest that they 'know best' about their health condition? Does this not strain some potential relationships between pharma and physicians by positioning patients as self-prescribers?

Something I've always thought about anyway.

This all being said, I was intrigued by CNN Money's article the other day: Big Pharma's ready for prime time. According to the article, the pharmaceutical industry spends about $4.5 billion each year on television and print ads (up from roughly $1.1 billion in 1997). Unfortunately, big pharma is realizing more and more that "for all the time and money the industry has spent in the last ten years, only one in ten U.S. consumers believe drug ads provide useful information."

So how is pharma 1) keeping prescription drugs "on the air" and 2) keeping consumers interested in purchasing them? Pharmaceutical companies are working with prime time television shows like NBC's "Scrubs", CBS's "King of Queens", Fox's "House" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" to get their brands written right into the scripts! That is, the prescription drug is worked into the character dialogue, plot (or both) to try and grab the audience's attention and get them thinking about the drugs (whether consciously or not). I must say, this is pretty crafty (although pharma companies beware, the FDA is keeping an eye on this tactic since it doesn't condone such "product placements"). It can also easily offend viewers who aren't impressed by product name-dropping in their favorite sitcoms.

Honorable TV mentions include:

• Abbott's painkiller, Vicodin (makes sense... since half the world is depressed or suffering from some form of discomfort)
• Pfizer's erectile dysfunction pill, Viagra (entertainment + Viagra = no-brainer)
• Allergan's cosmetic treatment, Botox (another no-brainer since it's become the norm to get cosmetic surgery at 14 years old these days)
• Organon Pharmaceuticals' birth control device, NuvaRing (most teens and women use this...)

So my marketing spin? Although pharma needs to tread with caution, they have enough money to take the risk, and they also have the brains to realize mixing entertainment with prescription drugs is an effective hook. In fact, mixing entertainment with most kinds of business is effective because entertainment is what makes the world turn (in my opinion anyway). Additionally, prescriptions treat all kinds of common illnesses. And how many people in this world have some medical condition? Talk about mass appeal.

"People get their information from entertainment," says Thomas Valente, associate professor of preventative medicine at USC's Keck School of Medicine. "It's not a magic bullet. It's a small piece of the puzzle, but we'd be silly to ignore its potential."