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Pharmaceutical company president reflects in an interview that doctors are his industry's "primary customer."

1981

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In response, the interviewer asks the president of Boots Pharmaceuticals, "why not target the consumer?"

This will lead to the company's decision to hire a communications director to design the first direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in 1983, which will be the first time prescription drugs are marketed on television. Within 30 days, the ads will be ordered to be taken down, followed by 30 years of a continued legal battle.