Can the Trump Administration Finally Drag Drug Ads Into FDA Compliance?

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and clicking through the Boston Globe, when I came across Gerry Smith’s Bloomberg piece about a pharmaceutical company that actually did what the Food and Drug Administration said to do about its TV spots.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. has stopped airing a TV commercial for its new heart medicine, a sign that the Trump administration’s crackdown on the industry’s ubiquitous drug ads is having an impact on the media landscape.

Alnylam was one of many companies to get letters last month from the US Food and Drug Administration calling out what the agency believes are misleading commercials. Most of the letters, sent to companies including AstraZeneca Plc, Bristol Myers Squibb Co., and AbbVie Inc., detail concerns with their online, broadcast, and print marketing, ranging from hiring actors who appear too healthy to omitting key safety risks.

Whaddaya think, Doc – is the Food and Drug Sadministration finally breaking through after years of being told by drugmakers to screw off?

– Medicine Man

Dear MM,

As TV reporters often say (when they have nothing to say), time will tell. Meanwhile, the Alnylam commercial in question – for the new heart medication Amvuttra – is nowhere to be found on Google or YouTube. According to the Bloomberg piece, however, the spot showed patients who were way too exuberant while “traveling and participating in activities like whale-watching and jumping up and down while cheering at a football game.”

The ad was misleading, the FDA said, because it suggested that patients “can be carefree” about the heart disease that the drug treats.

“The totality of these claims and presentations also misleadingly suggests that treatment with Amvuttra will broadly improve a patient’s overall quality of life when this has not been demonstrated,” wrote George Tidmarsh, the head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, on Sept. 9. The company was asked to address the violations, including by halting communications the FDA found misleading.

In response, Alnylam pulled the ad, saying “It’s standard practice to pause advertising while changes are being considered.”

(Actually, it’s kind of not, as the Doc recently chronicled regarding the FDA’s attempted crackdown on “surreal” ads. )

The Alnylam pullback means the FDA is batting .010 so far out of its 100 cease-and-desist letters to pharmaceutical companies.

The Doc’s diagnosis: Please note that Alnylam has a market cap of around $60 billion compared to, say, Pfizer’s $155 billion. Or AstraZeneca’s $255 billion. Or AbbVie’s $413 billion. So the FDA basically hooked one of the minnows in the Pharma pond. Wake us when they land a big fish, yeah?

Is the NWSL’s BOS Nation Brand Launch Really ‘So Bad It Feels Like Satire’?

Oct16 by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and clicking through the Boston Globe, when I came across Michael Silverman’s piece about the naming of the National Women’s Soccer League’s new Boston franchise.

Boston’s new professional women’s soccer team established its identity with what it believes is a boss move Tuesday.

The “BOS Nation Football Club” name is a play, team leaders explained, not only on “Boston” (with a nod to Logan Airport) but also on the “boss” mind-set needed by players to command attention and, ultimately, win championships here . . .

A number of billboards reading “There Are Too Many Balls In This Town” went up around Boston this past weekend, a cheekycampaign designed to show that the National Women’s Soccer League team that is scheduled to begin play in the spring of 2026 is intent on elbowing its way onto a vaunted local pro sports stage.

Kind of . . . well . . . ballsy – no, Doc?

– Jump Ball

Dear JB,

Here’s that billboard.

But wait! There’s more!

Via Michael Silverman: “A video accompanying the campaign features references to an array of ‘balls,’ such as old, new, steel, cold, and goat — the last mention followed by a quick video clip of Tom Brady saying, ‘Wait, what?’”

In general, the BOS Nation campaign has gone over like the metric system. First there was Print contributor Charlotte Beach’s blowtorching of the name itself.

BOS Nation FC is a terrible name for a sports franchise because, to put it bluntly: it’s corny as hell. “Lady Boss” culture and the “Girl Boss” discourse is over. In fact, it never started. It’s an inherently dated and regressive concept that is the opposite of empowering. “BOS Nation” is trying too hard. It wants so badly to be cool, and there’s nothing less cool than wanting to be cool.

Beach’s piece sports the “feels like satire” headline, but her thorough dismantling of this “lasagna of disrespect” should be read in its entirety.

As night follows day, the NWSL quickly moonwalked away from the balls-out advertising, as detailed by NBC News reporter Kyla Guilfoil (among others).

The National Women’s Soccer League’s newest team, Boston-based BOS Nation Football Club, apologized Wednesday after its name reveal and brand campaign launch garnered criticism online . . .

Many users on social media criticized the club’s ad for its emphasis on male athletes. “Why are we making our NWSL announcement about men?” one user on X wrote.

Other users complained that the campaign assumes that only men have balls, arguing that it makes the campaign transphobic.

The Doc’s diagnosis: The whole thing is bollocks.

Apple Ripped Off Masimo’s Technology, So Masimo Ripped Off Apple’s TV Spot?

Jan25 by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and paging through the Boston Globe, when I came across this full-page ad for the medical technology company Masimo, which is pursuing a patent dispute with Apple over something something something about Apple watches.

“Here’s to the underdogs . . . “? Why does that sound so familiar, Doc?

– Apple Chord

Dear AC,

For starters, here’s how the Masimo ad (which also ran in the Wall Street Journal yesterday) begins.

Loose translation: Masimo is David, having developed medical monitoring technology that it alleges Apple – which would be the bully – stole for its Apple Watch, as Aaron Tilley has detailed in the Wall Street Journal.

Ad transition: The copy sounds familiar because it echoes a legendary 1997 Apple TV spot that would “eventually play a pivotal role in helping Apple achieve one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in business history,” according to adman Rob Siltanen’s inside account for Forbes.

The commercial was Here’s to the Crazy Ones, and these were its opening lines.

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules…

Here’s the spot, whose script Steve Jobs initially derided as “sh-t.”

And, for those of you keeping score at home, here’s Masimo’s closing stock price yesterday after dropping six figures on full-page newspaper ads.

The Doc’s diagnosis: Actual underdog to be determined at a later (court) date.

Who’s Coughing Up the Cash for Full-Page Ads Touting Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?

May11 by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and flipping through the Boston Globe, when I came across this full-page ad on A3.

What the hell, Doc – this guy’s calling card is his anti-vaccine jihad, but no mention of it in this costly five-figure advertisement? Is the Super PAC just trying to inoculate him?

– Vax Vexed

Dear VV:

First of all, you gotta admire any full-page ad in a major metropolitan newspaper that starts off with a quote about being silenced.

Beyond that, now that we know who the bad guys are, let’s take a look at the purported good guys, starting with the outfit that paid for the ad, American Values 2024. Its website fails to list any of the Super PAC’s good guy funders, but it does showcase Our Team.

The website also spotlights the bad guys at ABC News.

ABC News makes a point of letting viewers know they censored RFKJ

ABC News made a bizarre announcement that they censored RFKJ’s statements about COVID, vaccines and autism following an interview with him on Thursday, 4/27 that included a discussion of the ongoing censorship of him by the corporate media.

“We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines,” ABC interviewer Linsey Davis said following the interview. “We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview.” Davis added.

At this point we will just quote Kennedy, “Show me where I am wrong.”

The group helpfully provides video of the offending segment.

Finally, there’s this boilerplate about the Super PAC.

(John Gilmore’s website provides exactly zero additional information.)

The American Values 2024 Twitter feed (70 tweets, 301 followers) isn’t much help either.

But elsewhere on Twitter, the Super PAC has gotten a modicum of attention.

About a week ago, Slate’s Jim Newell took a look at those polling numbers.

Kennedy officially launched his Democratic primary bid on April 19, after a month or two of making noise about it. In an April 9 Morning Consult poll, 10 percent of those surveyed said they would support Kennedy for the Democratic presidential nomination. The day of Kennedy’s launch, a USA Today/Suffolk poll had Kennedy at 14 percent. The Fox News poll released April 26, referenced by CNN, showed Kennedy at 19 percent. Kennedy was at 21 percent in an April 27 Emerson College poll . . .

It’s not just Kennedy who has a little bit of traction, though. Marianne Williamson, in her second consecutive Democratic primary, is registering in polls as well. In the Fox News survey, Williamson was polling at 9 percent. She was at 8 percent in the Emerson poll.

The main reason these two eccentrics have a surprising primary polling foothold against an incumbent president, then, is because they are the only two warm bodies giving it a go against a president who a supermajority of Americans believe should not run for president again.

One final note: The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last asks, Why Is This Man Running as a Democrat?

If you haven’t read Mona [Charen’s] fantastic piece about RFK Jr., go do that right now.

For me, the most interesting question is: Why is this guy running as a Democrat?

As Mona demonstrates, RFK Jr.’s biggest fans seem to come from conservative world. He’s a Fox News / InfoWars kind of candidate . . .

And RFK Jr. is much closer to Alex Jones and Trump and even DeSantis than he is to Bernie Sanders or any other Democratic figure . . .

[It] seems possible that if DeSantis hollows out, the opening isn’t for Nikki Haley, or Tim Scott, or Brian Kemp—it’s for someone like RFK Jr., or Elon Musk, or Alex Jones to take from Trump by making him look like part of the establishment.

The Doc’s diagnosis? Forget Covid boosters – get yourself a Dramamine drip and settle in for the long run.

P.S. Still no idea who’s bankrolling American Values 2024, but it’s bound to come out sooner rather than later.

How Long Before Ads on Uniforms Make Baseball Players Look Like Nascar Drivers?

Apr24 by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and tooling around ESPN.com, when I came across Ronald Blum’s Associated Press piece.

Padres 1st MLB team to reach uniform ad deal, with Motorola

NEW YORK (AP) — There will be a new pitch on Major League Baseball fields next season.

The San Diego Padres became the first team to announce a deal for ads on their uniforms, saying Tuesday that patches with a Motorola logo will be worn on the sleeves of their jerseys.

The March 10 memorandum of understanding for a new collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the players’ association gave the 30 teams the right to sell patch ads on uniforms and sticker ads on helmets. The sides adopted an Aug. 6, 2021, proposal by MLB to amend a section of the Official Baseball Rules which states: “No part of the uniform shall include patches or designs relating to commercial advertisement.”

Here’s what MLB is proposing: “Notwithstanding the foregoing or anything else in these rules, a club may license to third-party commercial sponsors the right to place their name, logos and/or marks on the uniform, provided that the patch or design is approved in advance by the Office of the Commissioner after consultation with the players’ association.”

What the hell, Doc – are baseball players as brand billboards the new national pastime?

– Logo NoNo

Dear NoNo,

You’re not the only one exercised about the branding of baseball players, at this letter to the San Diego Union-Tribune attests.

Corporate logos on Padres uniforms are a bad call

Re “Motorola patches to land on Padres jerseys in 2023” (April 19): I had read in the U-T that corporate advertising was going to be allowed on uniforms this year, but as far as this San Diego Padres fan is concerned, adding Motorola’s “batwing” logo to the team’s jersey is in poor taste and just clutters an otherwise classically great uniform.

It’s only a matter of time until the Padres Friar will have a “Support Your Local Developer” stitched onto the back of his robe, and Padres jerseys will look more like pro soccer’s, where the teams’ cities have disappeared and been replaced by only the corporate sponsor(s’) logo(s).

Is Mass General Brigham’s Ad Campaign About ‘The Facts’ Actually Factual?

Mar21 by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and working my way through the Boston Sunday Globe, when I came across this full-page ad for Mass General Brigham touting the healthcare system’s proposed expansion.

The ad’s subhed claims that “The capacity problem is preventing us from caring for the patients who need us the most.”

As you know, Doc, advertising quite often is entirely fact-free, so should we take this campaign at face value? Or what?

– Mess General

Dear Mess,

First, let’s look at the ad’s body copy.

Okay – so according to Mass General Brigham, demand has outstripped supply at the hospital for the past three years.

Except, according to this piece a few weeks ago by Boston Globe reporterJessica Bartlett, the expansion could simply be a naked power grab by the healthcare behemoth.

For weeks, Mass General Brigham has splashed its teal ads across newspaper pages, television screens, and the Internet to rally support behind its proposed $2.3 billion expansion.

The campaign, which experts estimate cost millions of dollars, has angered competitors and a legislator, who say the health system is using its deep pockets to relay misleading information to regulators and the general public. Mass General Brigham, for its part, says it’s using the ads to dispel misinformation spread by critics and to speak directly to patients.

Here is Mass General Brigham’s manifest destiny TV spot.

And here is MGB’s pitch to extend its tentacles into Westborough and Woburn.

Critics of the expansion plans include not only local competitors and community groups, but also the health insurance industry, as Bartlett’s Globe piece noted.

The Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, which counts 15 of the state’s largest insurers except Blue Cross Blue Shield, has come out against Mass General Brigham’s proposed expansion . . .

In a letter sent to the Department of Public Health on Tuesday, the association said the state’s largest and most expensive provider shouldn’t be allowed to get bigger, especially as it faces a “performance improvement plan,” — a spending audit from a state health care watchdog agency for excessive spending. MGB is the first system ever to be held to such an audit.

Beyond that, not everyone is buying the ad campaign’s claims of lower costs for consumers, Bartlett also reported: “The watchdog Health Policy Commission . . . said in its review the expansion would raise annual health care spending by $46 million to $90.1 million by drawing patients to higher-cost facilities and creating a new referral pathway to the system’s downtown hospitals.”

The problem, as always, with fact-checks is that they tend to run once, while ad campaigns just keep rolling. (To be fair, the Globe did publish a follow-up piece last week that featured much of the same material as the earlier one.)

Regardless, in the end Mass General Brigham gets to dictate which “facts” dominate the public discourse. That’s just a fact of life.

Has Bryan Cranston’s TV Spot Turned Mountain Dew Into Mountain Don’t?

Jan31 by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There are tons of A-list celebrities touting products in television commercials these days, as Boston Globe critic Don Aucoin noted yesterday.

Among those singled out by Aucoin is Bryan Cranston.

Bryan Cranston is indisputably one of the greatest dramatic actors of our time. But if Cranston was going to do a Mountain Dew commercial spoofing Jack Nicholson’s ax-wielding “Heeeere’s Johnny!’’ scene from “The Shining,” couldn’t he have at least insisted the writers come up with a better punchline than “Heeere’s Mountain Dew Zero!’’

What do you think, Doc? Bryan Cranston – drama hero to Mountain Dew zero?

– Mountain Doh!

Dear Doh!,

Let’s start by looking at the TV spot in question.

No doubt the whole thing is an example of Buckraking Bad. But has it been good for Mountain Dew sales? Not so much, according to Statista’s M. Ridder.

Market share of the Mountain Dew brand in the U.S. 2004-2020

In 2020, the market share of the Mountain Dew brand in the U.S. amounted to just under seven percent. Over the past decade and a half, the brand’s share has remained between six and seven percent.

So Heeeere’s Bryan! has not exactly broken down the doors at retail.

Glad you axed, though.

Here’s Why Fr. Roy Bourgeois Ran That Boston Globe Ad

Mar6 by Campaign Outsider

So the Doc asked the other day, Who Is Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Why Did He Run an Ad in the Boston Globe?

The ad (in part):

And etc. (including a call for people to contact Pope Francis to “request that our Catholic Church ordain women, accept LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people as equals, and recognize gay marriage”).

As for our question, we answered the who in our original post.

And we can now answer the why, having just talked to Fr. Bourgeois on the phone. (Tip o’ the pixel to his editor, Margaret Knapke, who made the phone call happen.)

Why the Boston Globe?

“I just wanted to poke the beehive,” Fr. Bourgeois told the Doc, “and I have some friends there who wanted to contribute to a good cause.”

He has friends here because he attended seminary in Hingham and has given talks in this area numerous times.

The response has been good, Fr. Bourgeois says, and he has no intention of recanting his support for women’s ordination, even though it could return him to the priesthood.

“Asking me to do that would violate my conscience,” he says.

Fr. Bourgeois has himself contacted Pope Francis, but has yet to receive a reply. Meanwhile, he says, it’s “just a matter of time” until women (and other disenfranchised groups) are justified by the Catholic Church.

God bless him.

Yo.

Who Is Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Why Did He Run an Ad in the Boston Globe?

Mar4 by Campaign Outsider

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

So I’m minding my own business reading the Boston Sunday Globe when I come across this ad on page A6. (Blurry visuals compliments of the Globe.)

Really? Some Catholic priest in Columbus, GA has enough dough to buy a quarter-page ad in the Sunday (week’s most expensive) Globe? What’s the deal here, Doc?

– Cathaholic

Dear Cathaholic,

Excellent question.

First, some background.

From November, 2012 via Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter:

Roy Bourgeois: They finally got him

Ah, they finally got him, as we all knew they probably would. Eventually. And with a press release it was done: Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest for 45 years, was told that the Vatican “dispenses” him “from his sacred bonds.”

And the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, caught in the culture that finds advocating for women’s ordination such a grievous and unpardonable offense, “warmly thanks” Roy “for his service to mission and all members wish him well in his personal life.”

And so it goes, as Vonnegut would say. So it goes.

Bourgeois’ case is a prime illustration of what, today, the institution can and can’t tolerate. Bourgeois’ major offense, the sin that is unforgiveable in the eyes of the church, for which penalty is removal from the order which he has served for nearly half a century and dismissal from the community, was advocating for women’s ordination.

And from a year ago, here’s the padre himself in a New York Times op-ed:

My Prayer: Let Women Be Priests

AFTER serving as a Roman Catholic priest for 40 years, I was expelled from the priesthood last November because of my public support for the ordination of women.

Catholic priests say that the call to be a priest comes from God. As a young priest, I began to ask myself and my fellow priests: “Who are we, as men, to say that our call from God is authentic, but God’s call to women is not?” Isn’t our all-powerful God, who created the cosmos, capable of empowering a woman to be a priest?

Let’s face it. The problem is not with God, but with an all-male clerical culture that views women as lesser than men. Though I am not optimistic, I pray that the newly elected Pope Francis will rethink this antiquated and unholy doctrine.

He’s also decided to pay, in the form of the Globe ad.

Why here? Why now?

The old Doc will try to find out. We didn’t find a way to contact him at his website, but we’ll track him down eventually and get back to you.

Yo.

What’s Up with the ‘Bees Can’t Wait’ Ads?

Dec4 by Campaign Outsider

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

I saw this ad in the New York Times (and the Boston Globe) the other day and I just don’t get it.

Here’s the sting:

Save Bees?

Do you understand what they’re talking about, Doc?

– Honey Trap

Dear Honey Trap:

Not really.

The Save-Bees.org home page reprints the newspaper ad, whose body copy says this:

Honey bees, native bees and other pollinators are responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat. Bees pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that make up 90% of the world’s food supply. Many fruits and vegetables, including apples, blueberries, strawberries, carrots and broccoli, as well as almonds and coffee, rely on bees. These beneficial insects are critical in maintaining our diverse food supply.

Honey bee populations have been in alarming decline since 2006. Widespread use of a new class of toxic pesticides, neonicotinoids, is a significant contributing factor. In addition to killing bees outright, research has shown that even low levels of these dangerous pesticides impair bees’ ability to learn, to find their way back to the hive, to collect food, to produce new queens, and to mount an effective immune response.

This week, 15 countries are imposing a two-year restriction on the use of several of these chemicals. As you know, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates it will be 2018, 5 years from now, before it makes a decision on this deadly class of pesticides.

We request an immediate moratorium on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.

Bees can’t wait 5 more years – they are dying now. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the power and responsibility to protect our pollinators. Our nation’s food system depends on it.

Almonds. Who knew?

And then there’s this:

Just for the record, here are the goo-goos who want to Save the Bees:

The Saving America’s Pollinators Act, eh?

That’ll become law right about the time Dr. Ads becomes Surgeon General.

Yo.

Ask Doctor Ads

Warning: Dr. Ads Is Not a Licensed Physician

Tag Archives: Boston Globe

Can the Trump Administration Finally Drag Drug Ads Into FDA Compliance?

Is the NWSL’s BOS Nation Brand Launch Really ‘So Bad It Feels Like Satire’?

Apple Ripped Off Masimo’s Technology, So Masimo Ripped Off Apple’s TV Spot?

Who’s Coughing Up the Cash for Full-Page Ads Touting Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?

ABC News makes a point of letting viewers know they censored RFKJ

How Long Before Ads on Uniforms Make Baseball Players Look Like Nascar Drivers?

Padres 1st MLB team to reach uniform ad deal, with Motorola

Corporate logos on Padres uniforms are a bad call

Is Mass General Brigham’s Ad Campaign About ‘The Facts’ Actually Factual?

Has Bryan Cranston’s TV Spot Turned Mountain Dew Into Mountain Don’t?

Market share of the Mountain Dew brand in the U.S. 2004-2020

Here’s Why Fr. Roy Bourgeois Ran That Boston Globe Ad

Who Is Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Why Did He Run an Ad in the Boston Globe?

Roy Bourgeois: They finally got him

My Prayer: Let Women Be Priests

What’s Up with the ‘Bees Can’t Wait’ Ads?

ABC News makes a point of letting viewers know they censored RFKJ

Padres 1st MLB team to reach uniform ad deal, with Motorola

Corporate logos on Padres uniforms are a bad call

Ads on NHL jerseys are coming, but Bruins will insist on ‘the right fit,’ says Cam Neely

Market share of the Mountain Dew brand in the U.S. 2004-2020

Roy Bourgeois: They finally got him

My Prayer: Let Women Be Priests