TV on Drugs

If you’ve been watching TV since b/f the late-90s I’m sure you’ve wondered at one time or another what unleashed all the advertising for drugs of the last decade. In 1997 lobbying by media companies (like Time-Warner) finessed some FDA rule changes by the handle of “Direct to the Consumer Advertising (DTC).” This opened TV to an avalanche of advertising dollars smothering consumers w/ medical fixes for everything from high cholesterol to depression. In the ‘90s drug companies were spending $55 million on DTC ads; by 2005 the number had skyrocketed to $7.5 billion. There is, apparently, credible evidence that as many as a third of consumers see an ad for a drug on TV and then talk to their doctor about it. Half of those end up w/ prescriptions. In short, a highly lucrative number of people who watch these ads believe them, even when the words addressing risks, read in a low-key rush, outnumber the sales pitch.

Harlots High and Low: A Foul Saga in The History of Network TV, By Alexander Cockburn