Jan 10 2008
Congress Probes Celebrity Drug Ad Endorsements
The sub-headline over at ABCNews.com is “Lawmakers Concerned That ‘Dr.’ Jarvik Lipitor Ads May Be Misleading Viewers.”
A kindly “doctor,” Robert Jarvik, inventor of the artificial heart, tells viewers about the benefits of Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering medication. The ubiquitous commercial, along with previous ads, helped make Lipitor the best-selling drug in the world, with almost $13 billion in sales in 2006.
Those ads, and their use of celebrity endorsers, like Jarvik, are now being investigated [by a congressional subcommittee], for potentially misleading viewers. Source: ABCNews.com
I am not surprised, especially since I wrote an earlier article showing how misleading the Lipitor print ads are. That article can be found here. It’s a very deceptive ad.
