Here is the 30 second ad
American/Canadian readers of this blog will probably think, 'What's the big deal, we get ads like this all the time'. Here in the UK we don't. In fact I thought it was illegal to advertise any prescription drug.
I found the ad misleading, "40% of men over 40 may have suffered some degree of erectile dysfunction," says the voiceover. This claim is then juxtaposed with a pop-up subtitle that states: "12 year study of US males. The Massachusetts Male Aging Study 1994."
Firstly, why is an ad airing on British TV using data that refers to American men and secondly, why are they using a study to back up their claim that is 15 years old?
The ad promotes the website 40over40.com, a website sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company.
I pondered complaining to the MHRA but it seems they have already received a complaint about this particular ad, a complaint that they did not uphold!
Hardly surprising as earlier this year the MHRA teamed up with Pfizer to air an ad in British cinemas that, I believe, was nothing more than a PR campaign for Pfizer's Viagra. See here and here.
This end, I have made a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authroity [ASA]
Fid
** Prohibition of advertisements for medicinal products on prescription only
7. Subject to regulation 11, no person shall issue an advertisement which is likely to lead to the use of a relevant medicinal product which is a medicinal product for supply by prescription only and which is subject to any of the restrictions imposed by section 58(2) of the Act.
Source: The Medicines (Advertising) Regulations 1994
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