For Bayer $20 Million Corrective Ad Campaign is Just the Cost of Doing Business

Late last year Bayer Corporation agreed to spend $20 million on an advertising campaign to correct misleading ads for its birth control pill, Yaz. The agreement came after several warnings from the FDA and legal action taken by 27 states.

Yaz, a fourth generation oral contraceptive pill, is aimed at women in their 20s. It's slogan, "Beyond Birth Control", is intended to promote Yaz as a lifestyle drug and not just birth control. The two commercials that necessitated the corrective action depicted fashionably dressed young women and promoted Yaz as a "pill that goes beyond the rest".

One of the commercials, to the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister, shows the women kicking or punching away floating signs with labels of "irritability" and "feeling anxious". The other commercial is set to the tune "Goodbye to You" by the Veronicas and shows balloons with the words "acne", "headaches", and "feeling anxious" floating away from women who have presumably taken Yaz.

Both commercials minimize the risk of the drug by presenting the serious risk disclosures by way of voice over while showing distracting visuals, numerous scene changes, and background music. According the FDA, "[t]hese complex presentations distract from and make it difficult for viewers to process and comprehend the important risks being conveyed." The FDA goes on to state that this is particularly troubling given the seriousness of the risks being conveyed.

The problem with the ads is that they basically speak to a majority of menstruating women and not to the minority of women who suffer from Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), the psychological problem for which Yaz is approved, according to Dr. Nada L. Stotland, a professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical Center in Chicago and the president of the American Psychiatric Association. If an individual suffers from the serious psychological disorder PMDD, then the risks of taking Yaz may be worth the drug's benefits in treating their PMDD. However, the Yaz commercials failed to emphasize this point, misleading so many young women about who should take Yaz.

This is not the first time governmental officials have attacked birth control commercials for being misleading. In fact, the FDA sent a warning letter to Berlex Laboratories regarding its ads for Yasmin, the predecessor of Yaz. The FDA faulted the ads for minimizing the risks of Yasmin in much the same way as the 2008 Yaz ads run by Bayer.

For Bayer who saw profits soar in 2008 from about $262 million to about $616 million, the cost to correct the ads is just the cost of doing business and is "chump change" to a company like Bayer according to Bruce L. Lambert, a professor of pharmacy administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Professor Lambert doesn't think this type of misleading advertising is likely to stop "unless there are more significant consequences."