Drug advertisements in daily newspapers: a case study with the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (Hannover General Newspaper).

The Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ, The Hannover General Newspaper) was launched in 1949 and is the largest daily newspaper in Lower Saxony, Germany. Drug advertisements in daily newspapers are common but have not yet been the topic of scientific investigation. This study analyzed all 181 medical advertisements published in the HAZ issued in 2021, all of which promoted over-the-counter medicines. Information was extracted from each advertisement and checked for selected parameters relating to the general structure of an advertisement, the content of the advertisement and the medical products themselves. The Therapeutic Products Advertising Act (Medicines Advertising Law; Heilmittelwerbegesetz (HWG)) of 1965 regulates the handling of medical advertisements through mandatory information and prohibitions. All advertisements were checked for compliance with the Act. The Therapeutic Products Advertising Act is loosely worded and poorly implemented, i.e., in only 52% of the advertisements mandatory information was included and only 69% of the advertisements avoided the prohibitions of the law. Furthermore, there is a clear connection between the newspaper's readership, common diseases in the German population and the indications for the preparations. The most common indication was joint pain with 22.65%, this correlates with the prevalence of the disease in Germany and the age of the newspaper's readership. In most cases, scientific evidence of the effectiveness of the preparations was lacking and only 46 of the 181 advertisements mention clinical studies. All in all, this paper gives an insight into the world of medical advertisements in a German newspaper, where marketing mechanisms, the kind of the consumer and the prices of the advertisement play a far more bigger role than scientific evidence. The Medicines Advertising Law has many flaws that are exploited by the drug companies to address the readers of the newspaper. The law needs to be stricter and better controlled to protect the layman from false medical information.