Viagra Drug

Plugging drugs on television

August 7, 2007

When he feels his life is spinning out of control, TV mobster Tony Soprano reaches for Prozac, an antidepressant developed by Eli Lilly and Co.The names of popular drugs Viagra and Botox frequently come up in TV shows.

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There were 462 mentions of prescription drugs on TV last year, more than double the number from just two years earlier. But while consumer-product giants such as Coca-Cola, Toyota and BlackBerry shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to TV and movie studios to mention their products in story lines, it’s a mixed blessing for drug companies to have such exposure.

Discount Pharmacy - Buy Pharmacy at discount prices including free shipping.Discount Pharmacy provides confortable and easy way to order discount pharmacy online.”I don’t think the drug industry really likes this trend at all,” said Rob Frankel, a branding expert in Los Angeles. “Some of the jokes about Viagra and Botox are pretty sarcastic or disparaging. They get darker and deeper when they start mentioning Prozac and (anxiety medication) Xanax.”

In an episode of “Freestyle” on HGTV, a homeowner defined a comforting room in her house as her “Prozac room.” In an episode of “House,” a sign over the coffee machine in the doctors’ conference room says “Good coffee - cheaper than Prozac!”

Drug companies are relatively small players in product placement, with none breaking into the top 10. Bigger companies such as Nike and Hewlett-Packard dominate, according to Nielsen Product Placement.

Overall, companies paid $3.36 billion globally last year to place their products in TV, film and other media, up 37 percent from a year earlier, according to PQ Media.

Some pharmaceutical companies have acknowledged paying for TV plugs. Lilly says it doesn’t pay.

The FDA does not have an explicit position on product placement. In normal advertising, drug makers are prohibited from advertising the benefits of their drugs without mentioning possible risks.

Despite the billions of dollars the pharmaceutical industry spends on direct-to-consumer advertising, drugs still don’t have the instant connection with consumers that everyday products such as soft drinks and sports cars have, some media experts say. Therefore, television shows can do only so much to plug a drug.

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