The nontraditional use of commercial advertising in prescriber education

The availability of prescribing guidelines for antibiotics stimulated audits of antibiotic use in Melbourne hospitals. Following such audits, an advertising campaign to change prescribing was conducted at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. The success of this pilot study prompted a wider campaign to examine the power of marketing techniques in influencing prescribing. The Therapeutics Committee of the Victorian Medical Postgraduate Foundation (VMPF-TC) was established to administer this project and to undertake promotional activities. The Victorian Drug Usage Advisory Committee, which was established to advise the Minister for Health on matters relating to drug usage in public hospitals, recommended that posters be used in hospitals to promote rational and cost-effective drug therapy. The VMPF-TC was asked to prepare posters for sale to hospitals on the basis that economies of scale could make it financially viable. Oral rather than parenteral administration of antibiotics was chosen as the theme for the first poster.