The negative reaction from consumers and physicians to "reminder ads" brings into question the ads' utility, Pfizer Relationship Marketing Operations Manager Michele Dahan said April 28 at Pharmaceutical Executive's Marketing Summit in Philadelphia.

"I don't know exactly how useful reminder ads are, and I'm wondering as an industry if we've actually taken a step backwards and become less responsible in trying to promote the product directly to the consumer" through reminder ads, Dahan said.

Reminder ads mention a product, but not the condition the product is designed to treat, so a consumer often must see a doctor simply to find out if the advertised drug is pertinent to his condition.

Consumers "can't do anything until they have cycled back to their physician, and that's the only way they get…to the product. So we're actually going almost a full circle in those reminder ads," Dahan said. Consumers go "two steps backwards to go one step forward."

"I don't know that reminder ads do what we intended them to do…. I don't know that they necessarily have the effect that we want them to have."

As a result, reminder ads may contribute to a negative impression of DTC advertising in general.

"I think we're also creating a stir in the marketplace that isn't necessarily the stir that we wanted to create," Dahan noted. "The intention was to create a positive stir and in effect we're creating a negative stir to some degree."

In addition to the confusion the ads cause for consumers, physicians who field questions related to the ads can also have a negative reaction.

"A lot of the physicians don't want to hear 'I need Viagra ,'" Dahan said. "I'm a female. Obviously I don't need it, but I don't know what it's for with the reminder ad so it doesn't mean anything to me."

Reminder ads can also create regulatory issues for a firm because the ads do not require the safety and efficacy information found in longer advertisements.

A recent letter from FDA's ad division cited a 15-second ad for GlaxoSmithKline/Schering-Plough's Levitra (vardenafil). The companies considered the ad a reminder ad and did not include safety or efficacy information, while the agency felt the ad warranted the information (¹ Also see "Schering, GSK Reviewing Levitra Promotions After FDA Cites 15-Second TV Ad" - Pink Sheet, 15 April, 2005.).

- Andrew Shelton

“Reminder Ads” May Be Backfiring On Industry, Pfizer Exec Says

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