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# FDA to Research Deceptive Ad Identification
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-to-research-deceptive-ad-identification/
- Published: 2017-01-03T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T21:57:21.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5137613

FDA is soliciting comments on proposed research to determine how well consumers and healthcare professionals can identify and respond to deceptive prescription drug promotion. A *Federal Register* [notice](https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-31845.pdf?platform=hootsuite&ref=fdaweb.com) says that while studies have looked at the occurrence and influence of deceptive promotion, none have looked at the ability of consumers and healthcare professionals to independently identify deceptive prescription drug promotion.

“The ability to identify such promotion has important public health implications,” the notice says. “If unable to identify deceptive promotion, consumers may ask their healthcare professionals to prescribe specific drugs they would not otherwise request. Likewise, healthcare professionals unable to identify deceptive promotion may prescribe specific drugs that they would not otherwise prescribe.”

The notice notes that the agency’s Bad Ad program encourages healthcare professionals to report deceptive prescription drug promotion, which requires that they can successfully identify such promotion when they see it during their duties. Similar programs could be implemented for consumers, it says. “Reports of deceptive promotion are useful to FDA because they allow investigators to focus their efforts in an era where the amount of promotion far exceeds the resources available to monitor everything,” FDA says.