M e d i c i n e A ve 2 1981, followed a couple of years later with the first drug ad on TV in the US comparing the cost of Rufen to Motrin. Motrin's manufacturer, the Upjohn Company, organized a meeting in Washington, at which all manufacturers, with the exception of Boots and Ciba, declared that they had no intention to initiate DTC promotion. This forestalled potential Congressional intervention and led the FDA to disallow airing of the spot based on the fact that it had no prescribing information, even though it made no efficacy claims. The debate about DTC took a more public turn in 1982, when then FDA Commissioner Arthur Plull Hayes, Jr., during a talk at the Pharmaceutical Advertising Council (PAC) in New York, made an observation about promotion, predicting "exponential growth" in advertising directly to the consumer. Advertising executives saw this as a signal that the FDA would accept or perhaps even encourage the advertising of prescription drugs directly to the consumer. In September of 1983, Dr. Hayes formally asked for a voluntary two-year moratorium on DTC advertising so that FDA could properly study and address the issue. During the moratorium, the only permissible ads were price-related messages. At this point the industry was not sure about the role or importance of DTC advertising, and their wait- and-see attitude was evident in the results of a pharmaceutical company survey as reported in PR Marketing Representative, December 1984, where 24 of 29 companies stated they did not believe that DTC advertising would be beneficial. "Help Seeking" Ads Debut Even as the moratorium expired, most potential advertisers chose to sit on the sidelines. The exceptions 122
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDMwNDAx