The FDA’s crackdown on deceptive drug advertising is having a negative impact on pharma advertising across multiscreen TV platforms, the VAB notes. But, that has resulted in a boost for broadcast television, as has been seen in Media Monitors Spot Ten National TV reports shared by RBR+TVBR over the last several months.
The VAB now finds that pharma’s TV spend has increased significantly, with dollars shifting from the digital realm.
Most notably, TV spend has increased 53% following the government agency’s crackdown, with a shift toward longer-form TV ads “as brands place greater emphasis on regulatory compliance and risk-benefit transparency,” the VAB notes.
As the Video Advertising Bureau recounts, the FDA in September 2025 launched a crackdown on deceptive drug advertising with an initial issuance of more than 65 “warning” letters to pharma companies, 96% of which were targeted toward digital and social platforms.
“What came from that was a regulatory clarity that spurred increased investment across multiscreen TV platforms,” said Jason Wiese, the VAB’s Executive VP of Strategic Insights & Measurement. “To help marketers better understand this current landscape, VAB conducted an analysis of recent TV investment and ad duration trends.”
Among the report’s takeaways:
-
The marketplace clarity provided by the FDA’s actions spurred significantly increased investment across multiscreen TV platforms in the six months immediately following the crackdown, with an 11% increase in Pharma Rx advertisers and 53% increase in total TV spend year over year.
-
There has been a noticeable shift towards longer pharma Rx ad unit durations. For instance, between Q1 2024 and Q1 2026, the share of pharma Rx ad units longer than 30 seconds in the first quarter increased from 74% to 82%. Further, the share of 60-second TV ad units in the pharma Rx category increased from 56% to 63% between August 2025 and March 2026.
-
In the first quarter of 2026, the highest share of longer-length TV ads came from pharmaceutical categories focused on serious and complex health conditions, including depression, HIV, tardive dyskinesia, bipolar disorder, cancer, and diabetes.
-
Rx brands are being more mindful of proactively adhering to advertising rules and regulations across multiscreen TV platforms as they present a fair balance between their product’s risks and benefits and include information regarding major side effects and considerations.
Read the full report—which includes in-depth data, charts and analysis spanning total TV and streaming, prime-time daypart, sports, news and entertainment genres, as well as pharma product categories—here.
