title: Correction of misleading information in prescription drug television advertising: The roles of advertisement similarity and time delay.
abstract: Prescription drug television advertisements containing potentially consequential misinformation sometimes appear in the United States. When that happens, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can request that companies distribute corrective advertisements to address misinformation and inaccurate claims. Previous research has demonstrated effectiveness in corrective advertising for various products.
  
  
  
  The present article builds on that work with a randomized experimental study (n = 6454) of corrective advertising investigating the extent to which visual similarity matters between violative and corrective ads and the extent to which time delay matters between violative and corrective advertisement exposure.
  
  
  
  Our study sample included overweight or obese U.S. adults recruited from an existing online consumer panel representative of the U.S. adult population. We created a brand for a fictitious prescription weight-loss drug and produced corresponding direct-to-consumer (DTC) television ads. All participants viewed the same violative ad, but were randomly assigned to view corrective ads with different levels of visual similarity and exposure time delay using a 4 × 4 between-subjects factorial design.
  
  
  
  Results suggest corrective ad exposure can influence consumer perceptions of drug efficacy, risks, and benefits previously established by violative ads that overstated drug efficacy, broadened drug indication, and omitted important risk information. Corrective ads also can weaken consumer intentions to consider and investigate a drug. However, ad similarity does not appear to affect consumer perceptions and preferences. Although we found that the effects of violative ad exposure tend to diminish over time, the length of the delay between violative and corrective ad exposure has limited influence. An exception to this was observed with regard to recall of drug benefits and risks, where the impact of corrective ad exposure increases with greater time delay.
  
  
  
  These results extend previous research to a new health condition and hold implications for regulatory policy.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA. Electronic address: Kathryn.Aikin@fda.hhs.gov.
authors.forename: Kathryn J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Aikin
authors.affiliation: RTI International, 3040 E. Cornwallis Rd., P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
authors.forename: Brian G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Southwell
authors.affiliation: RTI International, 3040 E. Cornwallis Rd., P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
authors.forename: Ryan S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Paquin
authors.affiliation: RTI International, 3040 E. Cornwallis Rd., P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Rupert
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA.
authors.forename: Amie C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: O'Donoghue
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Betts
authors.affiliation: RTI International, 3040 E. Cornwallis Rd., P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
authors.forename: Philip K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019440:Anti-Obesity Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000592:standards*; D000067088:Direct-to-Consumer Advertising / Q000592:standards*; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012306:Risk; D013690:Television; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D019440:Anti-Obesity Agents; D055553:Prescription Drugs
keywords: Corrective advertising; Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising; Misinformation; Risk communication