Pfizer has decided to stop its advertising campaign featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik endorsing Lipitor. (If you haven't seen the ads, congratulations: you almost certainly watch TV shows that skew to a younger demographic. I, on the other hand, have seen them so often, I've effectively memorized them.)
The ad withdrawal appears mainly due to Congressional pressure, in the form of Congressman John Dingell (D-MI). Among the ad campaign's sins:
One television ad depicted Dr. Jarvik as an accomplished rower gliding across a mountain lake, but the ad used a body double for the doctor, who apparently does not row.Oh no! And here I was going to (a) pressure my doc into prescribing me Lipitor, and (b) buy a racing shell. My plans are now a shambles!
Another criticism: while Dr. Jarvik has a medical degree, he's not certified to practice. While he invented the artificial heart, he's not considered to be a cardiologist.
On the other hand: um, so what? It's a safe bet he knows more about heart ailments than does Congressman Dingell.
In any case, the Jarvik ads added up to outrageous violations of advertising regulations that don't really exist except in the whims of powerful Congressmen like Dingell.
Lipitor ads will be back someday, without Dr. Jarvik, and they'll almost certainly be as effective. But Dingell has exercised his arbitrary censorious power, gotten his name in the papers, and that's almost certainly where he gets his thrills.
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