We see them in advertising everywhere on TV, in magazines and online. We hear their voices in commercials. They are celebrities, stars of TV, movies, music, even politicians, and they are starring in drug advertisements telling us to buy certain prescription drugs - those drugs they are being paid to tell us to buy.
And we do. We ask our doctors to write prescriptions for them and the sales of those drugs go up. That's why drug companies pay celebrities so much money to be their spokespeople in drug advertising - because it works.
You know these celebrities. Sally Field (Boniva), Antonio Banderas (Nasonex), Michael Welch (Aczone), Jessica Simpson (Proactiv) and many others. They are being paid by the companies they represent to tell us to buy those specific drugs. That's part of their income. The pharmaceutical companies are their sponsors.
The question is - is there a problem with this? Should we believe what they have to say? How can we, as smart patients, tell whether the information is good or bad?
Here are some ways to discern what celebrity drug advertising information may be useful to you:
- Some celebrities talk about good health practices, and are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies to do so. Example: Mia Hamm is sponsored by GSK to talk about vaccines. Susan Lucci raises awareness of atrial fibrillation. Learning about real health challenges, and possible stop-gaps, is good for us patients (most of the time). To the extent you can learn something, then these ads may have some value.
- Some celebrities talk about their experience with lifestyle drugs. Bob Dole talks about using Viagra. Brooke Shields tells you that you should make your eyelashes grow longer,and Virginia Madsen promotes Botox. Lifestyle drugs aren't drugs that will cure something or improve your health. They are drugs that improve appearance and confidence. If they were never advertised, we probably wouldn't know about them. Like any other product we can choose, or not choose - we can pay attention, or not pay attention to those ads.
- Then there are the celebrities who talk about those drugs that are necessary for health preservation, or at least lead us to believe those drugs are necessary. These are drugs that address chronic diseases (like heart disease or diabetes) or even diseases that will eventually be terminal (like COPD or cancer.) That's a different category from a drug you can choose to use, or choose not to use. We see Nick Jonas touting a diabetes medication and Phil Mickelson telling us to use a certain medication for psoriatic arthritis, Sally Field talking about osteoporosis - even Jon Lovitz telling us what psoriasis medicine to use.
When it comes to choosing a drug to help manage your diabetes, or arthritis or even osteoporosis, or any medical challenge you have that affects your longevity, that's a decision that should not be shared with someone just because he or she has celebrity status. That's a decision that needs to be made with your doctor, maybe your family member, and your insurance company - not one that should be made based on someone else's experience, even if that person is a celebrity.
Perhaps the Biggest Problem with Celebrity Drug Advertising...
.... is the price of those drugs when you go to buy them.
For one thing, paying a celebrity to be a mouthpiece for any product drives up the cost of the product to the consumer. If the celebrity is paid $1 million dollars for appearing in the ad, and a million people buy the product, then they each paid an extra $1 to buy the product.
Secondly, only expensive drugs - those drugs that pharmaceutical companies have branded and expect to make billions of dollars from, are the ones they choose to use celebrities for. That's the nature of drug advertising to begin with. You will never see an ad for a generic drug. You don't often see ads for branded drugs that have a generic equivalent.
When you watch a celebrity on a TV drug commercial, or see a famous person in an ad in a magazine, practice your ability to separate those that should have an influence on you, vs those that could be dangerous. Then discuss your decision with your doctor to determine the right answer for you - no matter whether a celebrity has ever had any part in talking about that drug.
• Learn more about using drug ads to influence what drugs you take.
• Here's an explanation of how your insurer figures out how much you will pay for your drugs (Formulary and Tier Pricing).
