Why TV Commercials are Now All Pharma Ads

They're everywhere

Media companies won’t write about it, but on Twitter you’ll see the chatter. Watch NFL, the Emmys, or the Golden Globes, the change is undeniable. Commercials used to shill beer, insurance, trucks, burgers. Now it’s almost entirely drugs.

In 1996, Claritin advertisers found a loophole in FDA regulations that allowed them to advertise directly to consumers on TV by omitting mentions of the medication. In a year, pharma spending on TV time exploded to over a $1 billion.

Since then, we’ve all become familiar with the inescapable cringe of the pharma commercial. One of my all time favorites ads is E-Trade’s parody: “The condition known as hot dog fingers.”