Can Rx Drug Trash Talk - Litany of Side Effects - in DTC Ads Increase Sales?

"Warnings of serious side effects in drug advertising can actually improve consumers’ opinions and increase sales, rather than frightening them away, new research finds." That was the opening statement in a recent PharmaTimes article ("Serious side-effects warnings can increase drug sales: study").All you have to do -- which a LOT of people NEVER do -- to discover that this statement is rubbish -- i.e., a non-sequitur conclusion based on a faulty interpretation of the data -- is to read the original research paper or even just the abstract, which you can find here in case you actually care to read it. Here, let me force you to read at least the relevant section of the abstract:In one experiment, for example, smokers saw an ad for a brand of cigarettes: One version of the ad included a warning that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema, while another version did not include the warning. Predictably, participants who had the opportunity to purchase the cigarettes soon after seeing the ad bought less if the ad they saw included the warning. In contrast, participants who were given the opportunity to purchase the cigarettes a few days later bought more if the ad included the warning. The same outcome emerged when the researchers ran a similar experiment with ads for artificial sweeteners. According to Carmon and his colleagues, the warnings backfired because the psychological distance created by the delay between exposure to the ad and the decision ...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Drug Safety DTC Advertising side effects Source Type: blogs