ABSTRACT
TAKE A PILL FOR “BETTER HEALTH”: DIRECT-TOCONSUMER PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADVERTISING Heart disease is the Number 1 cause of death in the United States, accounting for one in every four deaths and killing 600,000 people annually. In addition to high blood pressure and smoking, one of the key risk factors for heart disease is having high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2014). Given this fact, along with statistics showing that more than 25 percent of adults aged 40 to 74 have high LDL cholesterol, it may be difficult to see any downside to advertising that encourages consumers to start taking drugs that lower their cholesterol. There is certainly little indication of any downside in the consumerdirected television ads for Crestor (rosuvastatin), which was the single most frequently prescribed drug in the United States for 2013 (Lowes, 2013). The ads for Crestor, prescribed for 23.7 million Americans in 2013, show middle-aged adults, most of them appearing to be somewhat overweight, celebrating as a white-coated “doctor” spokesman explains that studies show Crestor to be more effective than its competitor, Lipitor, in helping patients achieve their LDL cholesterol “goal”. One ad, called “SuperFan,” portrays a man reacting to a TV news announcement of this comparison the way one might expect a sports fan to respond when his favorite football team wins the Super Bowl – dancing around his living room in celebration, wearing an oversized, Crestor-labeled foam “thumbs-up,” while his wife and teenage son look on, shaking their heads. The man’s celebration continues in the ad’s visuals as the voice-over runs through the required list of potential negative side effects.
