After 20 years of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising for prescription drugs on television, viewers in the US and New Zealand – the only two countries that permit the marketing practice – are pretty much inured to the ads' numbing sameness.
The creative executions all seem to follow a kind of template – variations of happy active patients (presumably well now after taking whatever drug is paying for the spot) romping around in the outdoors.
Which is why, Shire's DTC ad for Xiidra, a new drug to treat dry eyes, delivers quite a jolt.
It's different: Gone are the sunny images....