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. 2010 May;100(5):793-803.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.181255. Epub 2010 Mar 18.

Hidden in plain sight marketing prescription drugs to consumers in the twentieth century

Jeremy A Greene  1 , David Herzberg
Affiliations

Hidden in plain sight marketing prescription drugs to consumers in the twentieth century

Jeremy A Greene et al. Am J Public Health. 2010 May.

Abstract

Although the public health impact of direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising remains a subject of great controversy, such promotion is typically understood as a recent phenomenon permitted only by changes in federal regulation of print and broadcast advertising over the past two decades. But today's omnipresent ads are only the most recent chapter in a longer history of DTC pharmaceutical promotion (including the ghostwriting of popular articles, organization of public-relations events, and implicit advertising of products to consumers) stretching back over the twentieth century. We use trade literature and archival materials to examine the continuity of efforts to promote prescription drugs to consumers and to better grapple with the public health significance of contemporary pharmaceutical marketing practices.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Institutional advertisement for E. R. Squibb & Sons touted the brand's integrity while playing up the importance of seeking medical advice. Source. Ladies' Home Journal, June 1924, 106.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Parke, Davis's institutional ads portrayed physicians as everyday heroes while warning of the evils of self-medication. Source. Your Doctor and You: Recent Advertisements in a Series Which Has Been Appearing in Leading Magazines (Detroit: Parke, Davis and Co., 1934).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Parke, Davis's institutional ads portrayed physicians as everyday heroes while warning of the evils of self-medication. Source. Your Doctor and You: Recent Advertisements in a Series Which Has Been Appearing in Leading Magazines (Detroit: Parke, Davis and Co., 1934).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
By 1960, Parke, Davis's institutional ads were implicitly promoting a specific company product, in this case Benadryl (diphenhydramine). Source. Today's Health, February 1960.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
“Backgrounders” like these three brought favorable attention to brand-name drugs under the guise of ordinary science journalism. Source. D. Cooley, “The New Nerve Pills and Your Health,” Cosmopolitan, January 1956, 68–75; L. Galton, “The Amazing Drug That Helps High Blood Pressure,” Pageant, April 1958,: 96–99; L. Galton, “A New Drug Brings Relief for the Tense and Anxious, Cosmopolitan, August 1955, 82–83.
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References

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    1. J. M. Donohue, “Direct to Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs: Does It Add to the Overuse and Inappropriate Use of Prescription Drugs or Alleviate Underuse?” International Journal of Pharmaceutical Medicine 20, no. 1 (2006): 17–24. DTC advertising of prescription drugs is, for the most part, a unique feature of American public health policy; although the European Union is currently debating a motion that would allow drug manufacturers to provide pamphlets of “nonpromotional” materials directly to consumers, apart from New Zealand, the United States remains the only country that explicitly permits the DTC promotion of pharmaceuticals. “Public Consultation (MLX 358): The European Commission Proposals on Information to Patients for Prescription Medicines,” available at http://www.mhra.gov.uk/Publications/Consultations/Medicinesconsultations... (accessed July 26, 2009)
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    1. W. L. Pines, “A History and Perspective on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising,” Food and Drug Law Journal 54 (1999): 489–518; M. S. Wilkes, R. A. Bell, and R. L. Kravitz, “Direct to Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising: Trends, Impact, and Implications,” Health Affairs 19 (2000): 110–128; F. B. Palumbo and C. D. Mullins, “The Development of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising Regulation,” Food and Drug Law Journal 57, no. 3 (2002): 423–443; J. Donohue, “A History of Drug Advertising: The Evolving Roles of Consumers and Consumer Protection,” Milbank Quarterly 84, no. 4 (2006): 659–699.

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