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Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTC-PA) is designed to showcase new drugs in the most appealing light—often by portraying healthy, happy individuals as the outcome of treatment. While these ads are meant to promote products for serious health conditions, they can also shape patient expectations and influence provider decisions.

This talk will explore how such advertising fosters false hope. Despite regulatory measures requiring risk disclosures and qualifying statements, research suggests that patients often focus on the desired outcome—improved health and well-being—while overlooking contraindications and side effects. The imagery of restored health can be more powerful than the fine print.

Arguing that false hope is not only misleading but harmful to individuals and society, the presentation will make the case that direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising should be banned.

Christopher Bobier , PhD, MHHSA, is an associate professor of foundational sciences at Central Michigan University College of Medicine in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. An ethicist and health policy expert by training, he earned his MA and PhD from the University of California, Irvine, and his MHHSA from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. His research interests include (i) the ethics of solid organ xenotransplantation, (ii) the ethics of dual-use research of concern, and (iii) the nature and significance of false hope in medicine.