Darkening Clouds from Europe
In May 2018, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will go into effect and will fundamentally change how advertisers and consumers interact in the online environment. When effective, the regulation will significantly increase current restrictions on advertiser access to personal consumer information, will require additional data management procedures and will mandate new advertising disclosure requirements. In many respects, the efforts required to comply will resemble the same kinds of undertakings organizations went through to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank. Importantly, the failure to comply carries fines as high as four percent of a company's global turnover. Unfortunately, the EU has provided very little meaningful guidance on actions companies must take to become compliant.
The ANA Responds to Stuart Elliott's "Misdiagnosis"
On December 9, MediaVillage columnist Stuart Elliott declared that “Madison Avenue Has Overdosed on Prescription Drug Ads.” He argued that the U.S. should consider banning or severely restricting advertising of prescription medicines. While I frequently agree with Mr. Elliott’s thoughtful views, in this case, unfortunately, he is clearly wrong.
AMA’s Proposal on Prescription Drug Advertising is Wrong and Misguided
In a surprise vote on November 17, 2015, at the Interim Meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA), the physician group adopted a policy aimed at banning direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising. The group will now begin lobbying Congress for a ban on these ads.
