Women are easy marks for drug companies.  They’re more likely to do their health care homework, correctly fill out insurance paperwork and pay attention to television commercials that feature medications.  They’re more comfortable advocates for their own well being as well as that of family members (a man has to be standing on a bridge ready to jump before he’ll admit he’s depressed) – and more easily turn her healthy behaviors into sales.  Women also pay close attention when an ad features beautiful young models, ads that pitch lifestyles as well as birth control.

So how does big pharma market a new birth control pill?  Several years ago, Bayer started a campaign to push Yaz to the top of the birth control pill charts; it was incredibly successful, until the FDA forced Bayer to pull the ads featuring women kicking balloons labeled "irritability," "headaches," and "increased appetite."  When a pill implies, to the background pulse of a popular rock tune, that it will end pimples and monthly bloat, who wouldn’t pay attention?  Who cares if it can kill you?  

I’ve followed the advertising campaign since it started.  Less obvious and more insidious than the original ads are the ones that feature a beautiful woman lecturing her friends at a high-end party where you just know everyone will go home and fuck.  Yaz is selling something beyond contraception; pregnancy prevention is just the start of the message in these commercials.   

The party pooper, as she’s come to be known in my household, states, “I didn’t go to medical school for nothing,” when her friends express surprise at her vast font of knowledge regarding Yaz.  This is not exactly the same as saying, “I’m not a real doctor, I just play one on TV.”  Ask a viewer whether she thinks that woman is a physician.  She just said she was, didn’t she?

The FDA has been all over this advertising campaign.  Given the politicization of the FDA during the Bush administration, it’s difficult not to read into their maneuvers; however, it does feel right that they are coming down on Bayer in this case.  The pill addresses a majority of menstruating women with its promise to cure pimples and PMS.  It does not deliver.  You don’t have to shoot headaches and cramps with an elephant gun; Midol, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen all work well.  Yaz is helpful for the minority of women who experience an actual psychiatric disorder, PMDD.  PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) actually interferes with quality of life and the ability to function during the premenstrual phase.  Yaz was also approved for prevention of moderate acne.

Yaz’s formulation includes a synthetic hormone that causes an increase in serum potassium — the level of potassium in the blood.  This is risky business; excess potassium can lead to serious heart problems, as well as involvement of other major organ systems.  As the corrective television advertisement states, "check with your doctor" to make sure your heart and kidney function are normal before starting Yaz.  And unless you’re intent is to purchase a lifestyle in addition to oral contraception, a more traditional birth control pill would work as well.  In 2008, Yaz was the best-selling birth control pill on the market.  And the corrective ad campaign only skimmed the top of Bayer's deep pockets.

Evelyn Sharenov