Fair Balance in Direct-to-Consumer Antidepressant Print and Television Advertising, 1995–2007

Abstract

The authors evaluated fair balance in the presentation of risks and benefits in a large sample of direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription antidepressant medications appearing in magazines (1995-2006) and television (1999-2007) to assess how well they meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines. Using content analysis to capture relevant dimensions of the ads, results indicated that (a) considerably less attention is given to risks relative to benefits and (b) implicit ad content favors communication of drug benefits over risks, but that fair balance in direct-to-consumer ads has improved over time. The authors discuss policy implications and explore future research directions.

The impact of direct-to-consumer television and magazine advertising on antidepressant use

“…Although the FDA encourages "fair balance" in the presentation of benefits and risks in DTCA (Avery et al, 2011), the social desirability of DTCA remains uncertain and contentious. Proposed legislation in the European Union (EU) and Canada may open the door to this type of marketing more broadly in other countries.…”

Vitamin panacea: Is advertising fueling demand for products with uncertain scientific benefit?

“…To mitigate the possible endogeneity bias, we saturate models with indicator variables for every television program and magazine asked about in the NCS survey. A similar approach was used in previous studies using these same data (Avery et al 2007b; Avery et al 2012). However, we further innovate on the targeting control approach used in those papers in two ways.…”

“…Our measure combines vitamin advertising on television and in consumer magazines with reported individual-level media behavior (i.e., reported television viewing and magazine reading) to estimate the impact of these ads on reported consumption of vitamins and mineral supplements, while accounting for biases from ad targeting behavior by marketers. This approach was used in recent studies focusing on other prescription drug product classes (Avery et al 2007a,b; Avery et al 2012; Byrne et al 2013; Niederdeppe et al 2013). …”

Direct-to-Consumer Promotion of Prescription Drugs on Mobile Devices: Content Analysis

“…Content analyses have found fair balance lacking in DTC marketing in print [10-12], television [11,13-15], websites [16-18], social media sites [19], and Internet banners [20]. It is also important to have an accurate picture of the mobile promotion landscape in order to make informed decisions about mobile DTC promotion.…”