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On The Air: Drug ads find home during kids' shows

By Times Wires
Published March 2, 2007

In December, an ad for impotence drug Viagra aired at around 9 p.m. during Prancer, a G-rated movie about a young girl who nurses one of Santa's reindeers back to health. A spot for rival medicine Levitra appeared during an afternoon showing of the comedy Pee-wee's Big Adventure. And an ad for Cialis graced an early-evening presentation of the holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street. Despite a pledge from the pharmaceutical industry to be more careful with prescription-drug advertising, impotence-drug makers are sliding back to tactics that drew widespread criticism from patients, doctors and regulators. A pediatricians' organization is calling for no impotence ads during hours when children are likely to be watching, and a major AIDS group has expressed concern that ads have become too suggestive again, encouraging people who aren't suffering from erectile dysfunction to use the drugs recreationally. Pfizer Inc. defends its ads, saying the cable network showing Prancer was aware of the company's restrictions on audience and that it was composed of 95 percent adults. "In developing the current campaign, our goal was to strike the right balance between motivating men to take positive action for their health and remaining sensitive to the environment," the company says. "We believe the campaign achieves both goals."

On Mad Money

6 p.m./9 p.m./midnight most weekdays, CNBC

Jim Cramer suggested these stocks on his CNBC show thisweek:

EBay Inc. (EBAY), IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO): The Internet stocks are attractive alternatives to Google Inc., whose stock climb has stalled, Cramer said. "Even though Google is great, even though I am not backing away from my $600 target, the stock is not going there right now," Cramer said.

HJ Heinz Co. (HNZ) and Altria Group Inc. (MO): Cramer said these picks are good defensive stocks after this week's market decline. "After a ferocious selloff, the market bottoms out in thirds," Cramer said. The first industry is supermarket and medicine-cabinet stocks, he said.

[Last modified March 1, 2007, 23:16:12]