HEALTHAMA offers guidance for direct-to-consumer adsDelegates seek to discourage casting actors as physicians in these commercials and have the FDA review these advertisements before they reach the public.By Victoria Stagg Elliott, amednews staff. July 10, 2006. Chicago -- Peter W. Carmel, MD, is a doctor -- and he plays one on TV, too. The AMA trustee and neurological surgeon from Newark, N.J., appears in the American Medical Association's television commercials. But when actors play physicians in drug advertising on television, the result can be misleading. Therefore, the Association wants to discourage this practice, especially in regard to the promotion of prescription products. If actors appear as physicians in product-specific advertisements, a disclaimer should be prominently displayed, according to a new policy adopted by the House of Delegates. "There are a lot of direct-to-consumer advertisements that have some wonderful kindly doctor who says in the most professional manner, 'This is what you should do.' And, of course, they're not doctors. They're actors," Dr. Carmel said. "They don't really speak from knowledge or experience." This recommendation is one of many in the beefed-up guidance for direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription products issued in a Board of Trustees report at the AMA Annual Meeting last month. Many of the recommendations are in line with the principles that were released by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the trade group that represents the industry, in August of last year. "We look forward to working as an industry with the House of Medicine to try to improve [direct-to-consumer advertising]," said PhRMA's Chief Medical Officer Paul Antony, MD, MPH. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2006 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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