Viagra, Cialis and Levitra... those erectile dysfunction commercials that air while you're watching sitcoms aren’t just awkward and uncomfortable, according to a new study, they are breaking rules too. Those rules, designed by the pharmaceutical industry itself, are meant to ensure the campaigns educate consumers and avoid targeting audiences for which the message is not age appropriate - like children. But the study out of UNC Charlotte says that 'Big Pharma's' efforts to self-regulate are "an industry-sponsored ruse" with the intention to deflect criticism and block any new Federal regulations. We'll talk with the researchers about direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing - about the effectiveness and the ethics behind the ads. Sex, Lies and Television, when Charlotte Talks.
Guests
Denis Arnold - Associate Professor of Management and Surtman Distinguished Scholar in Business Ethics in the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte. Co-Author of the study The Politics and Strategy of Industry Self-Regulation: The Pharmaceutical Industry's Principles for Ethical Direct-to-Consumer Advertising as a Deceptive Blocking Strategy.
James Oakley - Associate Professor of Marketing at Montana State University. Co-Author of the study The Politics and Strategy of Industry Self-Regulation: The Pharmaceutical Industry's Principles for Ethical Direct-to-Consumer Advertising as a Deceptive Blocking Strategy.
Adriane Fugh-Berman, M.D. - Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center.