Despite criticism, Big Pharma is still displaying the same old ad strategy:
In December alone, an ad for impotence drug Viagra aired at around 9 p.m. during “Prancer,” a G-rated movie about a young girl who nurses one of Santa’s reindeers back to health; another spot for rival medicine Levitra appeared during an afternoon showing of the comedy “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure;” and another for Cialis graced an early-evening presentation of the holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street.”Despite a pledge from the pharmaceutical industry to be more careful with prescription-drug advertising, impotence-drug makers are sliding back to tactics that drew widespread criticism from patients, doctors and regulators. A pediatricians’ organization is calling for no impotence ads during hours when children are likely to be watching, and a major AIDS group has expressed concern that ads have become too suggestive again, encouraging people who aren’t suffering from erectile dysfunction to use the drugs recreationally.
