“For Risks and Side Effects, Ask Your Doctor or Pharmacist.” Cross-Cultural Consumer Responses to Pharmaceutical Advertising Regulation – Evidence from Brazil, Germany and the US

According to the IMS Institute for Health, the global pharmaceutical market is expected to increase to USD 1.2 trillion in 2017 due to an aging population, unhealthy eating habits and lifestyles, as well as the increasing incidence of chronic diseases across the entire global population (Business Wire, 2013). The majority of investigations conducted to date have predominantly focused on direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising (DTCA) (see e.g. Menon et al., 2004; Herzenstein et al., 2004; Huh et al, 2005). Apart from a very small number of investigations, research on consumer attitudes towards non-prescription drug advertising is limited (e.g., Main et al. 2004, DeLorme et al. 2010, Huh et al. 2015), while the majority of publications has predominantly focused on direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising (DTCA) (see e.g. Cheong and Kim, 2014).