As per the change in the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation in 1997, companies were now allowed to advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers without the requirement of providing the detailed risk information that was required under the old regulation. This change created an opportunity for the pharma companies to tap on to this newly established market segment and hence there started the new era of Direct to Customer drug advertisements. We believe that Direct to Customer marketing though has a handful of benefits, its negative effects outweigh the benefits it provides. Direct to Consumer Advertising (DTCA), as the name suggests, involves promoting products directly to consumers using popular media. Historically, advertisers …show more content…
This is unethical and the matter should be looked into. (CCHR International, 2014) [2]. • Another argument against it is that the advertising campaigns of the prescription drugs by the pharma companies emotionally force the consumers to resort to using these drugs even if there is an alternate cure. They have, in the past, marketed the prescription drugs by attaching emotions such as shame, fear, inferiority, vanity, vulnerability, helplessness, etc to it. For instance, drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra aided in solving the issue of erectile dysfunction which usually is a medical problem for people in their old age and for people recovering from medical treatments like Prostate surgery. The companies marketing these drugs would have been considered as fair and ethical if they had limited their marketing to these segments of people. However these pharma companies crossed the line and advertised these drugs in places where young people would see them. Now, erectile dysfunction among young people is mainly because of excessive alcohol consumption, obesity or lack of exercise and hence can be solved even without relying on these drugs. So advertising and tempting the youth to use such drugs (having certain side effects) just for the sake of increasing their profits is not right and hence direct to customer advertising of these drugs should be banned in the first