Advertising and Drug Prescriptions

Frightening statistic of the week:

"Nearly a third (30%) of adults say they have talked to their doctor about a drug they saw advertised, and 44% of those who talked to their doctor received a prescription for the medication they asked about. This means that 13% of Americans have received a specific prescription in response to seeing a drug ad."

[emphasis added, from the report, Impact of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on Consumer Drug Spending, brought to you by the Kaiser Family Foundation]

Marketers would have you believe that 13% of Americans - that's 39,472,404 people - really, truly needed the drug they requested. If this were true, then 13% of our population are capable of accurately self-diagnosing. If you believe that, then I've got a pill to sell you.

In all seriousness, though, whose responsibility is it? That is, who do we hold accountable for this massive addiction? Most folks would assign blame to one or more of the following:

• Big Pharma: The suppliers earn $4.20 (ironic, no?) for every $1.00 invested in advertising their drugs directly to consumers.
• Marketing and Advertising: The pusherman who facilities the deal (pssst, the first one's free).
• Consumers: Too dumb to know any better?

But whoever you blame, chances are you don't fall into that particular category. It's time to stop asking everyone else to change, and time to start taking responsibility. For consumers, that means doing our due diligence before we start popping happy pills. For marketers, it means taking a stand on what we will and won't help sell. And for business, it means looking beyond financial numbers as the sole measure of success.

It's not an easy pill to swallow, I know, but 9 out of 10 social entrepreneurs recommend it.