According to an AP story I saw this morning, “the new class of sleep aids promises an advertising war. Some industry watchers say the coming ad blitz for the emerging class of longer-term sleep aids such as Sepracor’s Lunesta could rival the ad campaign associated with erectile dysfunction drugs.” I certainly hope that there have been some lessons learned. While ads for sleep aids won’t offend people the way some ED promotions have, there is still the very real threat that an orgy of advertising will further stoke the anti-DTC fire. I hope that long-term thinking is not in short supply and that these new commercials will lean more towards a disease-awareness creative strategy. Otherwise we’ll have a new definition of “D’s, “Dems,” and … “Doze.”
DTC. Asleep at the wheel?
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