A researcher from the University of Texas at Dallas wanted to understand whether drug ads might have some unintended, population-level health consequences.
Dr. Tongil “TI” Kim, assistant professor of marketing in the Naveen Jindal School of Management – UT Dallas said, “A colleague and I were brainstorming, and I wondered, ‘Can Viagra ads result in more babies?’ With a more or less fixed gestation period, my colleague and I knew that we could compare the advertising amount and birth rates after 10 months.”
Dr. Kim and Dr. Diwas KC of Emory University, who published their study online in April in the Journal of Marketing Research, wanted to know the impact of direct-to-consumer ads of Erectile Dysfunction (ED) drugs – such as Viagra (sildenafil), Cialis (tadalafil), and Levitra (vardenafil) – on birth rates at the population level.
They looked at local TV commercials for the three drugs and compared advertising data with hospital data from Massachusetts from 2001 to 2010, and with 15 million birth certificate records from 2000 to 2004.
The researchers found that ED drug ads had no impact on birth rates. Also, they found no significant effects in earlier months as gestation would take at least nine months.
However, they found that in ZIP codes where more Viagra ads ran than in neighboring ZIP codes, the birth rate was higher 10 months after the ads aired. Also, they found the ads particularly increased births among families who have children.
The investigators believe that some viewers watched the Viagra ads and purchased it to improve their chances of achieving pregnancy.
Dr. Kim explained, “As for the content of the ads, many of the ED drug commercials during the data period featured suggestive ad copy and content, which resulted in some people deeming ED drug ads inappropriate for family viewing, as demonstrated by a legislative bill that was introduced in 2009 calling to ban ED drug ads on TV between 6 am and 10 pm.”
The study showed an unexpected finding; there was a stronger effect from the Viagra ads on birth rates in areas with lower incomes.
“It was surprising,” Dr. Kim said. “During our data period, the majority of ED drug consumers paid the full price out of their own pockets because ED drugs were generally not covered by insurance in the U.S.”
“Can mere TV content affect fertility decisions? Many studies have found this. For example, the launch of TV shows in Brazil about female working professionals was linked to a substantial decrease in the nation’s birth rates,” Dr. Kim said.
“This is not only a responsible thing to do, but it can also create creative marketing opportunities.” “For example, companies selling infant-related medicines and goods like children’s cold medicine, baby car seats or diapers might use ED drug ads as an additional market variable to better anticipate and predict local pregnancy rates 10 months later — essentially their market potential — and improve upon jointly deploying marketing and distribution resources across various regions,” he added.
