Science Confirms The Obvious: Pharmaceutical Ads Are Misleading
Pharmaceuticals LadyofProcrastination via Wikimedia Commons Six out of 10 claims in TV drug ads exaggerate or omit information. The U.S. is one of only two countries in the world* that allows pharmaceutical companies to market their products directly to consumers--in commercials like those cute little Zoloft ads and all those coy Viagra spots. Somewhat unsurprisingly, a new study finds that when over-the-counter and prescription drug companies make commercials trying to sell the public on their product, they're not always the most truthful. As many as six out of 10 pharmaceutical advertisements contain "potentially misleading claims," according to a study from the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The 168 advertisements studied came from a TV archive of ABS, CBS, NBC and CNN broadcasts that aired between 2008 and 2010. The researchers looked at the 6:30 news slot because that's a prime time frame to run drug ads--that's when old people...