This article in Ad Age talks about the FDA’s recent decision to pull ads for Levitra and Zyrtec off the air due to misleading claims.
What’s interesting here is that pharmaceutical companies seem to be doing what other comsumer marketers used to do, and have been trying to get away from: make claims of superiority, or “puffery” if you will, and bash the competition in the ads.
As long as pharmaceutical marketing is legal, it’s going to be big business.
Is there a way to do it compellingly, and legally, without
a) making bogus claims
or
b) showing dewy meadows, happy couples, and listing every side effect in the world?
