They said that the advertisement had to be hard-hitting

Recently Ukmedix News reported that an advertisement issued by the drug company Pfizer to warn people about the dangers of fake medication had been so shocking that the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom had received hundreds of complaints from people who had seen it in cinemas. The advertisement which features a man vomiting up a dead rat was obviously designed to shock but many people said that they found the advert misleading as well as offensive.

The Advertising Standards Authority however has issued a statement following a review of the advertisement and said that they would not uphold the complaints. The advertisement was intended for viewing before films which can only be watched by people over the age of fifteen and therefore it was unlikely that young children would see it.

The Advertising Standards Authority in their statement said that while the images were shocking because the advert was specifically designed to underline an important health issue which could be extremely serious the “metaphor of regurgitating a rat” was justified.  They said that the advertisement had to be hard-hitting in order to get the public to understand how dangerous using prescription medications without getting the proper prescription was.

Pfizer who issued the advert also produce the world best-selling erectile dysfunction drug Viagra which is probably the most counterfeited drug in the world. It is easy to buy fake Viagra on the internet very cheaply and Ukmedix News knows of many cases where men have become ill as a result of buying and using fake Viagra. Just recently doctors in the United Kingdom took part in a survey which shows that 25 percent of them have at one time dealt with patients who were suffering from the side effects of taking fake medication.

It is possible to see the advertisement produced by Pfizer on the Ukmedix web site.