28 February 2010


Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305)
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane
Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852


Re:    Docket No. FDA-2009-N-0441

Written Comments: Promotion of Food and Drug Administration-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools


The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) urges the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a much more thorough investigation into the use and impact of digital health marketing techniques and technologies. The health and safety of U.S. consumers must be protected from inappropriate and potentially harmful use of digital marketing applications that have been embraced by pharmaceutical and health marketers. It is essential that the FDA craft regulations and guidance for Internet-related promotion that reflect a thorough assessment of contemporary marketing practices, especially since interactive communications will become the dominant form for the delivery of health information and advertising to both consumers and health professionals.

By using an array of new digital marketing tools—including behavioral targeting, social media, online video, and mobile—pharmaceutical companies now have unprecedented abilities to take advantage of consumers.  Many of the new interactive marketing techniques have been purposely designed to tap into the concerns and anxieties of individuals who are going online to seek health information. For the most part, however, they remain invisible to consumers. We believe that some of the techniques may be unfair, deceptive, and/or harmful.

The following are only a few of the practices that are quickly becoming state-of-the-art in pharmaceutical marketing, and that raise serious consumer protection and health issues:

Google's Wi-Fi Privacy Ploy

By: Jeff Chester
The Nation
March 2006

 

The digital gold rush is on across America, as cities scramble to develop free or low-cost Wi-Fi zones. These public on-ramps to the Internet are designed to provide every citizen with a form of always-on, high-speed Internet access--at the playground, in the office or at home--at low or no cost.

Dozens of communities large and small, in red states and blue, are either planning or currently constructing Wi-Fi systems. Community leaders--from Philadelphia; Houston; Columbia, South Carolina; and San Francisco, to name a few--recognize that creating a citywide Wi-Fi zone is not only vital for economic development and public safety but helps insure that Americans who can't now afford digital communications on their own can also tap in to the riches and convenience of the Internet. But there is no such thing as a free digital lunch.

Consumers and public officials should have no illusions that what is being touted as a public benefit is also designed to spur the growth of a mobile marketing ecosystem, an emerging field of electronic commerce that is expected to generate huge revenues for Google, Microsoft, AT&T and many others. Soon, wherever we wander, a ubiquitous online environment will follow us with ads and information dovetailed to our interests and our geographic location.