In January 2009, Pfizer launched a hard-hitting cinema advertising campaign in a bid to warn people about the real risks of purchasing prescription only medicine, without a prescription, from unregulated sources such as illicit websites.
The cinema and online advertising campaign is a unique, ground breaking initiative, enabling a unified approach by key organisations in the fight against fake medicines. These organisations include Pfizer, the UK medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and leading patient representatives including The Patients Association, Men’s Health Forum and H.E.A.R.T UK.
The advert has been developed in direct response to the Cracking Counterfeit research highlighting that more than 330,000 men purchase prescription only medicines from unregulated sources, such as internet sites, every year in the UK.
The hard-hitting creative, showing a man coughing up a dead rat after taking a pill bought from an illicit website, dramatises the fact that counterfeit medicines can contain potentially life-threatening ingredients.
Follow the links on the right to visit the www.realdanger.co.uk web site and view the cinema advert, or to download a press release about the campaign.