Illegal Status And Policy Suggestions Of Drug Advertisements In A Newspaper

BackgroundNewspaper is one of four main media in our country currently. It is trusted widely by people because they look it as the speaker of the Party and the government. Recently, for the reasons of economic issue and lack of surveillance, there are more and more false and illegal advertisements in newspapers. Drug advertisement is one of the worst. Since the false and illegal advertisements are posted in the newspapers which are trusted widely by the society, people intend to trust them easily. Many people go to buy the drugs because they trust the advertisements. If the illegal advertisements, which are always casted for false or low quality drugs, were trusted by the consumers, they will get loss in their benefit of economy and health. Sometimes, the legal advertisements from "good" enterprises are doubted by people because there are too many illegal advertisements. At the same time, the fame of newspaper is hurt too. How can we improve the surveillance of drug advertisement? It has been one urgent and important question of the society.ObjectivesThis article chooses a main local newspaper, XX Daily, of some province as the object to research. We investigate and analysis the drug advertisement situations in this newspaper from July1st of2011to June30th of2012. We also create a new concept named the Value of Advertisement Influence (VAI), combined with the casting times and illegal performance to try to find the influence and casting rule of drug advertisements in newspaper. It could also be a useful tool for the surveillance authorities. We also made some researches in related domestic and foreign literatures, laws and regulations, to try to find the reasons of the current situation of illegal drug advertisements. Finally, the article gives some suggestions to policy and surveillance.MethodsThis article chooses a main local newspaper, XX Daily, of some province as the research object. We investigate and analysis the drug advertisement situations in this newspaper from July1st of2011to June30th of2012. We choose the<the Inspecting and Casting Standards of Drug Advertisement> as the judging rule for the illegal drug advertisements. Two certificated "Advertisement Inspectors" will judge the advertisements independently firstly, and then discuss together if the judging results exist difference. The final result will be the one that is recognized by the two inspectors. We choose the page, square and casting times as factors to design the index of influence of advertisement. Then, we get the formula of the Value of Advertisement Influence (VAI). We calculate the casting times and VAI of both illegal and legal drug advertisements annually, monthly, daily by weeks, and by products. We choose respective investigation method to analysis the data and try to find the casting rule of both illegal and legal drug advertisements. We also investigate and analysis the illegal situations by products, as well as the clarification and the manufacturer of the advertised product. Then we made some literature research, and combined the results of above investigation, to discuss the reasons of the bad situation of drug advertisement. Finally, we made some research of domestic and foreign laws and surveillance, and give some suggestion to improve our relevant laws and surveillance.Results1, The situation of drug advertisement in the newspaper(1) Overall casting rule of the whole yearThere are2523casting times of drug advertisements totally in the whole year,1299accounts for illegal drug advertisements, as51%of the total, while1224times legal drug advertisements, as49%of the total. For the VAI, the total number of both illegal one and legal one is1880.43. The illegal one is1635.63, accounts for87%; and the legal one is244.8, means a13%of the total. The illegal one is6.68times as the legal one.(2) The casting rule monthlyThe casting rule of illegal drug advertisement is that there will be a peak before Laborer’s Day and the National Day, and the valley is the Spring Festival. The casting rule of legal drug advertisement is that there is no obvious change in casting times and VAI except the Jan and Feb, when no legal drug advertisement was casted.(3) The casting rule daily by weeksFor the illegal drug advertisement, there will be a peak in casting times and VAI in Friday, Saturday and Sunday, while the other four days is the valley in the whole week. For the legal one, no obvious change in the whole week. (4) The casting rule by productsThe are17drugs that cast illegal drug advertisements. One product casts for the whole year long. Four products cast for five months, two products cast for four months, six products cast for two months, four products cast only for one month. For the casting times, three products cast more than150times, two products’ casting times are between120-130, one product’s casting times lie between80-90, five products have a casting times between60-70, six products casts30-40times. For VAI, a product is395, five products lie between100-200, two products lie between50-99, nine products have a VAI less than49. There are four drugs cast legal advertisements. All of the casting months are10months. All of the casting times are306times. All of the VAI are61.2.(5) The clarification and manufacturer informationAll the drugs that cast drug advertisements are traditional Chinese drugs. All the manufacturers are from other provinces.(6) Illegal circumstance by productsFive circumstances occurred in a rate of100%, three circumstances are not observed. Other circumstances have different proportions of incidence. All the illegal advertisements have several circumstances.2, The results of literature research(1) The main performance of current illegal drug advertisements in newspaperExaggerated advertising words. False promise. Proving themself with the image of doctors and patients. Prescription drugs cast advertisement in the media for common people. Advertising with unregistered trademark but not the name of drugs. Short line operation. Supervision is difficult.(2) The reasons of current mess of illegal drug advertisementsThe relevant laws and regulations are not sound, The structure of the legislation have limitation. Drug advertisement examining procedure is not perfect; The punishment to illegal drug advertisements is not enough according to the existing laws and regulations. The impulse of economic interest. The market competition is intensive. Lack of credibility. The collusion between media and advertisers.(3) Suggested solutionsRevision of existing laws and regulations. Straighten out the supervision and management mechanism. Strengthen the punishment. Strict implementation of drug advertisement examination. Application of a drug advertisement examination and approval system. Strengthen self-discipline. Construction of good faith system. Strengthen the public education. Improve the working quality of the personnel in the industry, etc.(4) Results of abroad literature researchOnly US and New Zealand permit prescription drug Direct-To-Consumers Advertisement (DTCA) currently. EU and some other countries are preparing to abolish the ban on DTCA. Results of abroad literature research show that DTCA can let consumers get more information of diseases and medications, encourage the dialogue between patients and their physicians, so it’s valuable. It’ll be better if the format could be improved. The countries which haven’t introduced DTCA like South Korea, think DTCA is valuable but it should be cautious and well-ready before introducing DTCA.3, The research results of the laws and surveillance situation of US and ChinaFor the self-discipline in the industry, both of China’s advertising industry self-discipline system and self-discipline organization’s function are inferior to US. In the aspects of laws and regulations, US has more strict punishments to false advertisements than that of in China. In the supervision system, the drug advertisements monitoring right and supervision right is unified in US, but they are separated in China.4, Policy Recommendation(1) Improve the legislative situation, strengthen the work cohesion and eliminate the gaps of law;(2) Strengthen the punishments to the illegal advertisements, implement the laws strictly, shock the illegal behaviors;(3) Guide the industry actively, establish a healthy morality and self-discipline system in the industry.ConclusionsRecently, for the reason of economic impulse, bugs of laws and weak surveillance, there are more and more false and illegal drug advertisements in newspapers. There will be some bias if we evaluate the influence of drug advertisement only by the casting times of drug advertisement. So, a new concept named Value of Advertisement Influence (VAI) is introduced. Combined with VAI casting times and illegal performance, we can find the casting rules of drug advertisements, both legal one and illegal one. It could be a useful tool for the surveillance authorities. If we make better law structure, reinforce the self-discipline of advertisement industry, and strengthen the punishment to illegal drug advertisement, we can reduce the occurrence of illegal drug advertisements, and protect the rights and benefits of consumers better.