Primary Messages of DTC Advertising during the Product Life Cycle: A Case Study

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, or the direct marketing of pharmaceutical drugs to health care consumers, is a controversial form of technical marketing communication that centers on the informative versus persuasive nature of the communications. An unaddressed dimension to the debate of DTC advertising is the influence of the technology innovativeness (specifically how new drugs that lack sufficient innovation and differentiation from other available products, or “me too” products) influences the content of DTC advertising and informs the informative versus persuasive debate. In this case study of Treximet, the evolution of the marketing messages was evaluated for nearly a decade (from the product launch in 2008 thorough 2018). The prominent information communicated in DTC advertising for this drug, was found to lack informative technical content and mislead consumers from biased conclusions drawn from incomplete information. Within a relatively short timeframe, the primary branding and product positioning of this “new” and “superior” technology diminished into branding as a second-choice drug. Thus, pharmaceutical drugs that lack sufficient technical innovation have DTC advertising that is rhetorically analogous to the advertising of non-technical consumer products and, alarmingly, emphasizes price incentives rather than informative content.