What The Marketing World Learned From A Banned Painkiller Advert

Besides the logistical and legal complexities of marketing health and life science products, there are a lot of considerations that go into the advertising campaigns that bring such products into the wider consciousness.

Aside from the more fundamental aspects of which products actually can be marketed to customers in the first place, there is a need for precision and accuracy in health-adjacent marketing beyond what is seen in other market sectors.

One landmark case in recent years that highlighted this the most and led to some fundamental changes in how healthcare products are marketed to consumers was found in the case of Nurofen, a brand owned by Reckitt Benckiser.

Specifically, Nurofen, a brand of ibuprofen tablets, was released in a set of “targeted” advertisements that claimed to provide faster pain relief for headaches, back, and joint pain, with claims that it can directly target muscles in specific areas.

This is not possible; no nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that can be purchased over the counter is targeted like this and the “targeted” medication is as effective in one area of the body as anywhere else outside of the placebo effect.

RB claimed that it had not made any specific claims or implications that its products could target particular sources of pain, instead claiming that the product range was intended to help consumers choose a pain relief option that would work for a specific pain area.

This issue was first raised in Australia in 2015, and after a Federal Court order that stopped them from selling their Specific Pain range in the country due to allegations of false advertising, the ASA would similarly get involved and ban the adverts on similar grounds.

This has changed how retail medical products are advertised by highlighting the consequences of not being careful with the claims that are being made in order to protect consumers from potentially misleading claims.