They make Much more money by appealing to the consumer than they do trying to introduce these drugs in the medical community. Part of this lies within the medical community itself, who is frequently hesitant to use new medications when they know all about the old ones, and want to wait until more people are using it before they start. Someone has to start first.

I worked in a building where most of the offices had a sign on the door that said "Absolutely No Sales Reps", and I, on more than one occasion pretended I was just someone who worked in the office if a sales rep came into ours.

It is truly annoying. I try to record shows so that I can fast forward through the ads - it doesn't always work but it helps. I think the US and New Zealand are about the only 2 countries that allow those ads.

@palimpsest - I wonder if they spend more on ads than they did on trips, tickets, dinners, etc. for the docs. And I wonder how they measure the effectiveness/ROI of the advertising.

Most pharmaceutical companies have money to burn

Maybe its because mostly old people watch regular television, so they are appealing to their target demographic. It seems like people from middle age on down are staring at ipads and phones, picking and choosing what to watch. Thats certainly true of daytime tv. However, that doesnt really explain the frequency.

Evidently the woman in the Jardience ad gets trolled for the frequency of the ad, as well as being heavy.

Big Pharma is definitely profit driven and Direct to Consumer Advertising is working for them, but most medical based organizations like American Medical Association, National Institute of Health, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists all believe DTC advertising should be banned. Too much of the information is delivered in ways that may not be technically deceiving, but are effectively deceiving. "No other treatment has been proven better." - but what does that mean? Are the older, less expensive treatments just as good? How much better? Is it also as safe?

I wonder if DTC advertising will increase or slow down with the Tariffs. Currently most of the big Pharma companies in the US focus on Research and Development and have the medications manufactured in China or other countries. Since many of them have standard pricing agreements with government programs or insurance programs so they will not be able to charge more for meds even if the meds are charged a 150% tariff. The only place they can make this loss up is by stopping R&D and reducing other costs, like DTC Advertising. If we don't have any new drugs what are they going to advertise?

In my experience (limited) the first thing to go when there is a challenge to profits is research and development particularly with drugs which are not going to turn big profits.

We don't watch much Network TV, mainly the morning local news and then I catch some of the Today show before work. Most of what we watch is YouTube subscriptions and there are a million pharmaceutical ads there, too. I think just based on age and maybe what we watch they assume we have certain conditions.

Now if DH watches something like classic TV shows like Hogan's Heroes, those are full of pharmaceutical ads LOL.

Im doing a scientific experiment. Turned on the tv and The Price is Right is on. Ad 1 is hair product, ad 2 is teeth whitener, ad 3 is asthma inhaler, ad 4 is Progressive insurance, ad 5 is Skinny Pop, ad 6 is Febreze, ad 7 is cat food. Back to the show.

( wow the models on this show are gorgeous)

next,

ad 1 Dawn detergent, ad 2, Vraylar antidepreessnt, ad 3 Consumer Cellular for old people, ad 4 Unstoppable odor things, ad 5 FBI show, ad 6 Survivor show , ad 7 AARP.

Back to show. Theres 15 minutes of my life Ill never get back!

Vibysmo,Nervive and TJ Maxx, Listerine, Ancestry, three tv shows ads,

The end!

Of course. They flood tv with their "ask your doctor if xxx is right for you," and the side effects which can include death. When I watched cable news it was rampant, probably because of the demographic watching, aging, ailing, clueless. I see a lot more EDD ads because I watch a lot of sports on tv. Lots of insurance ads too.

I watch almost exclusively sports and the drug ads are relentless. I don't know how one could want to take any of them after hearing the possible side effects.

I miss the days when they were not allowed to advertise to the consumer.

Canada doesn't allow the advertising of drugs on tv and I don't notice it if I'm watching an American channel at night. But during the day I do often watch MSNBC and Nicolle Wallace and, OMG, the drug advertising is relentless. Every ad is a drug ad.

My favourite is the dancing ones advertising Jardiance. (I'm being sarcastic) I don't even know what it's for but I'm shocked at the endless list of side effects including of course, the possibility of death.

Drug reps can no longer give expensive gifts or trips to doctors now by law, they are only able to bring in a meal for the staff if the doctor and practice manager allows. They shifted their focus to the consumer instead, many years ago. I don’t watch any live TV except for CNN on election nights so the commercials aren’t a problem. I am amazed though, when I see one, how dumb the names of new drugs are now. Skyrizzy comes to mind… if sounds like the name for a color that Snoop Dog made up.

Those Jardiance commercials are so bad. And they continue to get worse and worse with each new one they put out. They make me cringe.

I think it's to treat type 2 diabetes. I only know this because the stupid jingle has "...lowering my A1C..."

What I find extremly puzzling about some of the pharmaceutical ads is the fact that the ad does not even tell you WHAT CONDITION THE TREATMENT IS FOR 🤷‍♀️.. I can’t even see it in the fine print! Just ”ask your doctor if you might need it”🤣.

Thanks for that Jennifer - it reminded me of all those classic ad spoofs on Saturday Night Live.

Weird…I composed a post and it disappeared when I hit Submit. This has happened to me several times in the past month or two. Anyone else? Trying again.

The Jardiance commercial and a few others are so bad I mute them as soon as they start. It truly makes me wonder if the cure is worse than the disease. Do these companies really think the consumer is going to pick up the phone, call their doctor, and ask for that medication the next day? Maybe a very small percentage of people desperate for a cure or some relief from a new med.

Not a pharmaceutical ad, but there is a fairly new fast food commercial that has a ’fish, fish, delish’ rhyming tune that is awful. Even worse, the people in it then lick their fingers. Ewwww!

@tuesday - YES! I have no idea what Rybelsus is for and yet I see commercials for it/

I think Rybelsus allows you to walk through eyeballs, at least thats how it looks.

@OutsidePlaying - YES! I've been hearing that fish ad - so annoying. The tune is a little bit like a local grocery store commercial that ran excessively during Covid. That bugged me so much I contacted the company and told them I would never shop at their store because of that gawd awful tune that seemed to be paying 20 times a day. Fish, fish delish brought back bad memories.

In Palm Springs we get a lot of ads for HIV drugs, including PrEP, plus ads for generic Viagra - and not just late at night.

There are also ads for local dentists (especially cometic dentists) and for cosmetic surgery. In L.A. we got ads for condoms, but only very late at night, and also for online dating, which looked more like ads for escort services, etc.

Yep, research and discovery is the first thing to go from a pharma budget. Besides, why does pharma need to spend their own money on it when patients are willing to do walks and runs to raise the money for them?

I recently began watching TV since help my mom through chemo. My gawd the pharma ads are relentless and terrible. I do spoof dances around the living room to the Jardiance ads. My parents crack up and cheer me on. Laughter is the best medicine after all!

@Jennifer Hogan - That ad is great. And Tequilla really sounds like a pharma name.

Not to get political, but isn't one of the things RFK Jr wants to do is stop the drug TV commercials? That's one thing I could agree with him on!