TY - JOUR AU - Avery,Rosemary J. AU - Kenkel,Donald S. AU - Lillard,Dean R. AU - Mathios,Alan D. TI - Regulating Advertisements: The Case of Smoking Cessation Products JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 12001 PY - 2006 Y2 - February 2006 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12001 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12001.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Donald S. Kenkel Department of Policy Analysis and Management College of Human Ecology Cornell University Martha Van Rensselaer Hall Ithaca, NY 14853-4401 Tel: 607/255-2594 Fax: 607/255-0799 E-Mail: dsk10@cornell.edu Dean Lillard College of Human Ecology Cornell University 296 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall 115 Warwick Place Ithaca, NY 14850 Tel: 607/255-9290 Fax: 607-255-4071 E-Mail: drl3@cornell.edu Alan D. Mathios 182 MVR Hall Cornell University Ithaca NY 14853 E-Mail: adm5@cornell.edu AB - In this paper we investigate how direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of pharmaceutical products in affected by regulations of the Food and Drug Administration and by market conditions. We focus on a relatively under-studied segment of the pharmaceutical market -- the market for smoking cessation products. Because of their proven effectiveness, these products could be the key to meeting public health goals to reduce smoking. However, in many ways, smoking cessation products have been more heavily regulated than cigarettes. Our empirical analysis uses data on advertising expenditures and data from an archive of print advertisements. The archive includes all smoking cessation product advertisements that appeared in over 13,000 issues of 28 magazines between January 1985 and May 2002. Our study period begins shortly atfer the first nicotine replacement product was introduced, and covers the evolution of the market as new products are introduced while some of the older products move from prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) status. OTC status eases the disclosure requirements imposed on advertisements of prescription pharmaceuticals, substantially reducing the costs of a print advertisement. Our results suggest that OTC status is associated with an increase in advertising expenditures and the number and pages of magazine advertisements. A current proposal to reduce disclosure requirements on all DTC advertisements of prescription drugs could have similar effects. Our results also suggest that advertising increase with the introduction of new products and with market competition. ER -