British call American pharmaceutical advertising “post-apocalyptic”

• Britons questioned American drug ads that aired during Oprah’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
• Most countries have banned direct marketing of prescription drugs.
• “American advertising makes me feel like I’m in a post-apocalyptic world,” said a tweet.

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Brits can’t care about American prescription drug advertising.

British viewers took to Twitter last night during Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s bombshell interview with Oprah to ask why pharmaceutical companies are advertising directly to viewers.

Ayesha A. Siddiqi, trend researcher, writer and editor at The New Inquiry, put together a Twitter thread that cataloged tweets from British people who labeled prescription drug advertisements “wild”, “surreal” and “dark”. The thread shocked Americans for whom television drug advertising is routine.

—Ayesha A. Siddiqi (@AyeshaASiddiqi) March 8, 2021

“American advertising makes me feel like I’m in a post-apocalyptic world,” said a tweet.

“American medical ads are real dystopian shit, how you’re telling me I might die,” read another.

—Ayesha A. Siddiqi (@AyeshaASiddiqi) March 8, 2021 – Tai Rachel (@taiwhoa) March 8, 2021 – Ayesha A. Siddiqi (@AyeshaASiddiqi) March 8, 2021 – Ayesha A. Siddiqi (@AyeshaASiddiqi) March 8, 2021 —¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ (@TaureanRoye) March 8, 2021

The US and New Zealand are the only two countries that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers.

Siddiqi said she noticed Brits she had followed talking about pharmaceutical advertising during the show and decided to show her American followers how “mundane” drug advertising might be worth questioning.

“One of the most interesting British reactions to live American television was the shock at the idea of ​​’promoting medicine’. “In the US, people are tasked with being informed customers, not just beneficiaries of a healthcare system – with all of the inequalities in access that go with it.”

The healthcare industry spends $ 30 billion annually on ads and promotions, according to an analysis by Dartmouth College. Pharmaceutical companies have expanded beyond television to include social media advertising and partnerships with celebrities.

Pharmaceutical advertising is controversial even in the United States. In 2015, the American Medical Association – the largest medical group in the country – called for a ban on drug advertisements.

According to the STAT, in 1985 the Food and Drug Administrations allowed drug manufacturers to advertise. After the agency relaxed advertising regulations in the late 1990s, direct mail spending rose from $ 360 million in 1995 to $ 5 billion in 2006.

Drug advertising critics have asked the FDA for more regulation, calling on companies to prevent companies from playing distracting music and animation. The FDA states that if a drug company overestimates the drug’s benefits or misrepresents the data in an advertisement, the agency can ask the company to remove it or republish it.