Lack of Clarity for Online Ads Creates Confusion
by Jennifer Haug, Associate Editor, DTC Perspectives

The Internet as a medium has unique characteristics that need to be recognized and addressed by regulators. David Zinman, Yahoo! vice president and general manager for display advertising, told the FDA panel during last week's public hearings that consumers are not only aware of what the Internet has to offer, but they are utilizing those features. During his Thursday afternoon presentation, he stressed the importance of gaining clarity on acceptable forms of advertising from the FDA because the current lack of guidance is creating confusion amongst the advertising community.

Zinman spoke about some of the “emerging, innovative approaches” available for online advertising, suggested some solutions to enable pharmaceutical marketers to participate and pointed out where clarity is needed. Currently, display advertising runs in a very limited space. To counter such size limitations, he suggested that FSA require a strongly noticed link below the ad, which when clicked on presents the product's important safety information (ISI). This allows a user to scroll through at their own pace, taking as much or as little time as they need to read it. In addition, once the advertisement finishes playing, a static image will appear with the ISI. Both methods offer the opportunity for consumers to click through to the advertiser's Web site to learn more. Yahoo! would like “clarity from the FDA that this is an acceptable form of advertising that addresses the fair balance issues.”

Search, where majority of consumers begin their healthcare research, also has its own size and space limitations. When consumers land on a search results page, they tend to want to skim the information and prefer shortcuts to take them to a Web site where they can learn more. Yahoo! believes that allowing the brand information to be available in a search result would allow for greater clarity and transparency because consumers would know where they would be going when clicking on a link. Yahoo! is also experimenting with other models to better communicate with consumers. For example, there can be four separate links beneath a search result link. One of those four links can send consumers directly to the ISI, therefore prominently highlighting it. Another unique feature is for videos in search results. Currently, advertisers are only running broadcast-compliant videos in the search results page. However, consumers do not have the attention span to sit through a full television spot online. Yahoo! proposes that the pharmaceutical industry be allowed to run shorter form videos paired with the ISI shown alongside so consumers can take as much time as they need to view the content. Again, they would like clarity from the FDA so advertisers can move forward with such initiatives with certainty that this is acceptable.

As Zinman noted, consumers expect more control online. The proposed solutions allow for that, but the lack of clarity prevents marketers from executing them. Thus, Yahoo! requested some clarity and support from the FDA in terms of acceptable forms of advertising.

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