Ninety-two percent of U.S. viewers surveyed in 2021 believe “they see the same advertisements too many times when watching TV,” according to a new study by Audience Project. Nowhere is this more evident than in pharma TV ads like Tepezza.

Thyroid eye disease affects more women than men, although men are more likely to have severe illnesses. The exact prevalence of thyroid eye disease is unknown but is estimated to be 16 per 100,000 women in the general population and 2.9 per 100,000 men in the general population. So why in the hell is Tepezza running so many TV ads?

The study also generally shows high percentages for advertising “irrelevance” on TV, although in the U.S. This could especially be true for pharma TV ads which seem to run back to back to back.

Most TV ads are helpful for one thing: they give viewers a chance to multitask while watching TV. Doe the DTC marketers for brands like Tepezza believe that increased frequency is going to lead to new Rxs for a small number of people who have the health condition?

Focusing on frequency without context is a mistake. There’s a significant difference between having positive interactions, which are retargeted or precisely laid out to lead shoppers to purchase, and repeating the same experience.

Increased media consumption across TV platforms means it’s more complicated than ever before to avoid something called “ad fatigue. Ad fatigue occurs when your audience sees your ads so often that they become bored with them and stop paying attention. Show too many of the same ads to the same person, and your target market could be increasingly hostile to your brand and dread your ads. When you evaluate your TV campaigns and see a rapid dropoff of engagement and conversions after too many touchpoints, ad fatigue may be the cause.

When it comes to pharma DTC increased frequency is NOT going. To lead to more Rx’s, it’s a waste of money. You can see this in your website metrics that tend to drop once the newness of your product wears away.

So why do DTC marketers keep running the same spots again and again?

1ne: They’re inexperienced

2wo: Their agency is making money by suggesting they keep running the spots.

3hree: They believe people see a TV ad for a pharma product and ask their doctor for it.

4our: It looks great on a resume and makes the DTC manager feel important within the company.

It’s hard to see such a waste of money, but it’s a key indicator of just how deficient most DTC marketers have become.