Ads make some powerful drugs sound more like makeup
By Julie Deardorff
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Published: November 5, 2009
For about $100 a month, you could have the long, thick, dark eyelashes that you’ve always wanted.
But
Latisse, a drug that can treat the new medical condition "inadequate eyelashes,” also has a few unpleasant side effects.
It may grow excessive hair in places you don’t want (or expect). It could turn your blue eyes brown.
It could darken your lower eyelids, giving you raccoon eyes. And it might make your eyes red and itchy.
When you stop taking this wonder pill, your eyelashes return to normal.
If chemotherapy has caused you to lose your eyelashes, Latisse may be a dream come true and well worth the risk.
But the commercials aimed at a general audience make the product seem more like makeup than a powerful prescription drug,
Consumer Reports associate editor Jamie Kopf Hirsh wrote in Adwatch.
In September, the
Food and Drug Administration warned the manufacturer,
Allergan, that promotional materials on the drug’s Web site omitted or minimized certain risks.
"The Latisse commercial embodies pretty much everything that’s wrong with direct-to-consumer advertising,” Kopf Hirsh wrote.
"Unlike other consumer products, like refrigerators or toasters, drugs have side effects — sometimes nasty ones,” Kopf Hirsh wrote.
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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