Disease awareness advertising – DAA

In disease awareness advertising DAA, advertisements do not name a drug directly, but provide general information about diseases and treatments, and encourage consumers to talk to their doctor. While DTC is considered controversial, consumers tend to accept perceived benefits of DAA including heightened awareness of treatment options and improved discussions with doctors. As with DTC, marketers should be aware of possible negative impact of unbalanced information, inappropriate requests to doctors and consumer confusion in shaping their DAA communications.
Disease awareness advertising (DAA) is practically the only allowed form of communication to the general public for pharmaceutical companies outside of the United States and New Zealand (countries that allow direct to consumer advertising – DTC of prescription medicine). In the United States DAA is often called Help in Aid advertisement.
See also British MHRA’s Guidelines for Disease Awareness Campaigns.