Stealth drug ads: the tricky way Big Pharma is now advertising its meds

Big Pharma’s stealthy new way of marketing dangerous drugs

The scene opens with a happy, robust-looking woman pulling into a driveway greeted by her loving grandchildren.

The next thing you know, the grandmother is gasping for air. Instead of picking up the grandkids for a day out, an ambulance is being called and she is whisked away to the hospital.

“A severe COPD exacerbation can strike any COPD patient at any time,” the screen message warns, so be sure to “talk to your doctor today” about how to lower you risk.

Wow, it sure looks, sounds and even quacks like another one of those drug commercials. But it’s not.

Instead, it’s a “stealth drug ad” — the most devious way yet that Big Pharma hopes to scare you into taking its meds.

Hiding the risks

Billions and billions of dollars are spent these days by drugmakers to sell you their products using television ads.

But one day, a really sharp young marketing guy must have had this big idea: “What if we could sell consumers our drugs but not have to mention one word about those inconvenient side effects?”

And eureka, the stealth drug ad was born!

These ads masquerade as PSAs — warnings about certain diseases or illnesses. And by some amazing fluke, the pharma companies that pay for these epic dramas just happen to make drugs that treat these conditions.

What a coincidence!

The director of a pharma trade group calls being able to legally skip those warnings a way to “get more mileage for your dollar in getting the word out.”

Pharma people think it’s a “benefit for patients” as they can hear all those health conditions explained without the distraction of those inconvenient side effects.

Those who don’t work for Big Pharma, however, see them as a double whammy for consumers.

First, says epidemiologist Ameet Sarpatwari, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, all that helpful information is coming from a “company with a clear profit motive.” And that’s something we may not realize when seeing these ads.

Second, by not hearing the side effects that come along with these drugs, viewers may not realize the risks involved in taking them.

Also, Sarpatwari says, there’s a big danger that “misleading information will reach the consumer.”

One of these stealth ads, in fact, was so bad that even doctors were up in arms about it.

That commercial called “rising waters” from Novartis (which just happens to make a heart failure drug), features a man reading the paper in his living room unaware that water is rising all around him and his dog.

To the accompaniment of some really eerie music and the whining of the dog, the voice-over says, “With heart failure, danger is always on the rise.”

Doctors called that ad horrifying, irresponsible and deeply disturbing.

Then there are the stealth ads aimed directly at parents and grandparents.

A few weeks ago I told you about a disgusting stealth commercial put out by Merck to sell its Gardasil shot by hitting parents directly in the heart. It implies that if your son or daughter gets an HPV-related cancer, it’s your fault.

“What will you say?” is how the ad closes.

But Mylan, the profiteering drugmaker that raised the price of its lifesaving EpiPens by 500 percent, has outdone them all.

It spent $15 million already this year to hire celebrities and run an unbranded advertising campaign about the danger of food allergies!

Seriously? Why not just can the ads and slash the price of EpiPens?

Actual drug commercials, of course, are bad enough. But stealth advertising represents a whole new level of deception in marketing dangerous drugs.

And another reason to love the mute button!

Sources:
“Behind the stealth ad campaigns for the EpiPen and other drugs” Rebecca Robbins, August 29, 2016, Stat, statenews.com