Correspondence: Mathew Joseph, Bill Greehey School of Business St. Mary's University One Camino Santa Maria San Antonio, TX 78228, USA. e-mail: josephmj1@yahoo.com

¹is a professor of Marketing at St Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He holds an MBA from Southeast Missouri State University and a PhD from the University of Waikato in New Zealand. He is the author of a number of articles in the areas of cross cultural marketing, service quality, marketing strategy, health care marketing, electronic marketing, service technology, international advertising and promotion, marketing to Asia and Latin America, and marketing education.

²is Assistant Dean, Mitchell College of Business, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, USA. She holds MA and PhD degrees from the University of Alabama. She is the author of articles in the areas of health care marketing, services marketing, advertising management, business ethics and marketing education.

³is the Director of Community Outreach for the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, Mobile, Alabama, USA. She holds an MBA from the University of South Alabama.

Received 17 January 2007; Revised 17 January 2007; Published online 15 February 2008.

Abstract

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in the United States has dramatically increased as pharmaceutical companies have benefited from targeting consumers with messages about prescription medications. This study examines DTC advertising from the perspective of senior citizens, the group that uses the most prescription drugs per capita, and reveals their views on DTC advertising, the Medicare prescription drug insurance programme and pharmaceutical retailing. The findings are compared to a prior study of adult consumers and reveal that the elderly are less aware of pharmaceutical advertising, but are similar to adult consumers on their opinions of DTC advertisements. Implications for public policy and pharmaceutical retailing are discussed.