Daily Aha!

Daily Aha! You see 30 hours of TV drug advertising each year—and most of it is misleading.

Researchers reviewed 168 drug ads shown during nightly news broadcasts over three years and analyzed their content for accuracy. They found that 60 percent of the claims made in those commercials were misleading; they left out important information, exaggerated, or made meaningless assertions intended to sound clinically relevant. On top of that, 10 percent of the claims made were patently false advertising. The lesson? If you’re drawn to a drug you’ve seen on TV, do your research, talk to your doctor and take nothing for granted