Daily Management Review

Nurofen Got a New Headache in Britain


12/15/2015


UK Advertising Standards Authority began an investigation into the painkiller "Nurofen." The regulator will consider for cheating the audience Nurofen Express ad, which states that it acts specifically on the source of the pain.



Sam-Cat
Sam-Cat
Initiation of an investigation related to the analgesic in the UK was announced the next day after the Australian court has forbidden selling certain types of "Nurofen". The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will examine 12 complaints and check the TV advertising Nurofen Exrpess for cheating the audience. The commercials argued that Reckitt Benckiser’s pill act directly on the source of pain in head. In addition, the watchdog was asked to check out a statement saying that the above-mentioned kind of "Nurofen" "eliminates a headache faster than regular paracetamol or ibuprofen." However, as explained ASA itself, it studied only the commercial, not the drug itself.

Recall that on Monday, the Australian court decided to ban selling of several types of "Nurofen" and gave three months to remove the illegally advertised pills from shelves. Amount of the fine for Reckitt Benckiser will be determined by the court later. In this case, it is suggestion of existence of imaginary differences between different types of the same drug. According to the advertisement, every single kind of "Nurofen" deals with particular type of pain: headache, backache, and so on. However, the investigation revealed that a number of items had no difference in the amount of active ingredient, which in all cases was ibuprofen. Nevertheless, price of these drugs was twice as expensive as conventional "Nurofen" with the same composition. Ultimately, all variations of the drug with the identified violations of advertising have been removed from sale. The company has agreed to comply with the court.

It should be noted that problems similar to those with "Nurofen" may well appear in other pharma companies. List of non-prescription painkillers is quite brief, but number of companies producing them is constantly growing. Under these conditions, marketers has a fairly narrow room for maneuver, and many of them are tempted to embellish reality a little.

source: bbc.co.uk