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New advertising tactics by the pharmaceutical industry—such as marketing directly to consumers instead of to doctors—have also drawn fire from critics worried about vulnerable groups of consumers. According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, from 1994 to 2005, spending on direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs soared from $266 million to $4.7 billion. About two-thirds of such ads are shown on television, and they’ve proved effective for the pharmaceutical companies that invest in and use them. A survey found that nearly one in three adults has talked to a doctor about a particular drug after seeing an ad for it on TV, and one in eight subsequently has received a prescription. The tremendous growth of prescription-drug ads brings with it the potential for misleading or downright false claims. That’s because a brief TV advertisement can’t communicate effectively all of the cautionary information consumers need to know about these medications.