• Ad Age, Monday, May 24, 2010 10:50 AM

Rich Thomaselli writes that the Food and Drug Administration's efforts to recruit health-care professionals to report ads and sales pitches that violate its rules is not going over well. The "Bad Ad Program," which is run by the FDA's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications, allows medical professionals to anonymously report ads they consider false or misleading via e-mail to badad@fda.gov or by calling 877-.RX-DDMAC.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America offered "tepid support" for the program but others worry about "Big Brother," "vigilantism," or "personal jihads," Thomaselli reports.

"It's a bit of a publicity stunt that is going to make the agency look bad in the long run," says Peter Pitts, former FDA associate commissioner and global head of regulatory and public policy for Omnicom Group's Porter Novelli. One potential problem is that there no way to assure that a misleading ad actually comes from a health professional.

The FDA is also running a Web-based campaign to educate consumers about false or misleading DTC ads called EthicAd.

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