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The purpose of this paper is to review empirical research on direct‐to‐consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs published in journals over the period from 1997 to 2012.

A structured review of 130 published studies on direct‐to‐consumer advertising of prescription drugs was conducted.

Based on the structured review, the authors identified seven key research themes in DTCA. These are: consumers' attitudes toward direct‐to‐consumer advertising, physician‐patient interaction, content of DTC advertisements, awareness, literacy and memory, consumer information source and search, effect of DTCA expenditures on financial performance, and physicians' attitudes toward DTCA.

Avenues for future research are proposed. Future research needs to focus on more empirical studies, television DTCA, online and emerging media DTCA, new and improved measures, ethical issues and regulations, diverse countries, and nurse and pharmacist attitudes towards DTCA.

The primary contribution of this paper is a thorough understanding of the state‐of‐the‐art in research on DTCA and future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to review the issues regarding direct‐to‐consumer advertising that have been identified in the literature from the perspective of consumers, consumer groups, physicians, the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry.

Literature from international sources was reviewed to identify themes relating to direct‐to‐consumer advertising.

Direct‐to‐consumer advertising is expressly permitted in only two developed countries (USA and New Zealand). All other countries place various limitations on the practice. The debate surrounds whether or not the advertising provides a public health benefit.

The debate over direct‐to‐consumer advertising continues in jurisdictions around the world. This paper identifies and summarizes the issues that are being considered.

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 directed the US Secretary of Agriculture to report on the profitability and viability of beginning farmers and ranchers. Many beginning operations use local food markets as they provide more control, or a premium over commodity prices, and beginning operations cannot yet take advantage of economies of scale and subsequently have higher costs of production. Little research assesses the relationship between beginning farmer profitability and sales through local food markets. In this paper, the profitability implications of sales through local food markets for beginning farmers and ranchers are explored.

The authors utilize 2013–2016 USDA agricultural resource management survey data to assess the financial performance of US beginning farmers and ranchers who generate sales through local food markets.

The results point to four important takeaways to support beginning operations. (1) Local food channels can be viable marketing opportunities for beginning operations. (2) There are differences when using short- and long-term financial performance indicators, which may indicate that there is benefit to promoting lean management strategies to support beginning operations. (3) Beginning operations with intermediated local food sales, on average, perform better than those operations with direct-to-consumer sales. (4) Diversification across local food market channel types does not appear to be an indicator of improved financial performance.

This article is the first to focus on the relationship beginning local food sales and beginning farmer financial performance. It incorporates short-term and long-term measures of financial performance and differentiates sales by four local food market type classifications: direct-to-consumer sales at farmers markets, other direct-to-consumer sales, direct-to-retail sales and direct-to-regional distributor or institution sales.

To determine whether direct‐to‐consumer prescription drug advertising influences consumers' behavioral intentions.

Gathered data from 288 respondents using a pencil and paper mail survey. Respondents were asked about their knowledge and behavior regarding prescription drugs.

Indicated that while consumers generally have favorable perceptions of prescription drug advertising, their behavioral intentions are nevertheless influenced by a heightened awareness of specific branded drugs. Consumers feel empowered by the information provided in direct‐to‐consumer advertising and they are concerned about governmental attempts to regulate prescription drug advertising.

Data was collected from a relatively homogenous sample with respect to ethnicity. Future research efforts could include respondents from diverse ethnic backgrounds and could incorporate questions regarding respondents' actual behaviors with respect to branded prescription drug medications.

Useful information for researchers, public policy makers and prescription drug manufacturers. Results suggest that consumer motivation to request branded drugs may be impacted by factors related to the quality of advertisements, trust in their physician, and personal competence. Consumer interest in advertised drugs may also depend on the strength of the relationship that they have with their physician.

This research fills an identified gap in the literature. While researchers have examined consumers' general perceptions of direct‐to‐consumer prescription drug advertising, little research has been done on the link between consumer perceptions and behavioral intentions.

Based upon a national random sample of primary care physicians, this study updates earlier investigations of direct‐to‐consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription pharmaceutical drugs, in light of the explosive growth of such advertising since the late 1990s. The attitudes of the majority of primary care physicians surveyed remain strongly negative, with particular concern about the overstatement of efficacy/exaggerated benefit claims and inadequate risk information. There is, however, a minority of primary care physicians who might be favorably disposed toward DTC prescription drug advertising, provided the pharmaceutical industry addresses the expressed concerns of the medical profession.

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 directed the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Risk Management Association to investigate a policy targeted to farms and ranches that sell through local food markets. However, there is no available research that quantitatively documents the extent to which local food producers utilize Federal crop insurance.

The authors utilize 2013–2016 USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey data to compare farms and ranches with sales through local food markets to those with and without Federal crop insurance expenditure, as well as the distribution of Federal crop expenditure, across market channels and scales.

There is a little variation in Federal crop insurance expenditure across market channels, defined as direct-to-consumer only sales, intermediated sales, and a combination of direct-to-consumer and intermediated sales. Rather, the results show that scale is the primary predictor of Federal crop insurance expenditure; larger operations are more likely to have nonzero Federal crop insurance expenses.

This article provides the first national research to document descriptive statistics of the utilization of Federal crop insurance by US farms and ranches that utilize local food market channels.

This study aims to examine the effects of different types of endorsers (expert vs consumer vs celebrity) in testimonial vs non-testimonial message contexts on consumers’ responses toward direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA).

An online experiment was conducted with a 3 (endorser type: expert vs consumer vs celebrity) × 2 (message type: testimonial vs non-testimonial) plus control group (no endorser, no testimonial) factorial design to assess the various dependent variables.

Perceived source credibility and similarity was significantly different across the endorser types, and the expert endorser (i.e. a doctor) generated the highest mean level of source credibility, while consumer endorsers generate the highest mean source similarity. The interaction of endorser type and message type significantly impacted ad believability and skepticism. Specifically, the endorser type factor had a significant impact on the dependent variables only in the testimonial ad condition, but not in the non-testimonial ad condition. The effects were mediated by source credibility.

While the focused results show celebrities may not be the strongest choice to endorse when using testimonials, the overall lack of main effect of testimonials lends to the possibility of a plateauing of effects with the various appeals used in DTC ads. DTCA has now been around for over 20 years, and this study lends to the possibility consumers are becoming unaffected by the various appeals used by pharmaceutical manufactures and only respond when a multitude of personally relevant factors are in place.

This article seeks to examine attitudes about direct‐to‐consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs to final users (referred to as consumers in this paper).

A national telephone survey was carried out of 300 consumers that had seen a doctor in the last six months.

Consumer awareness of DTCA continues at a very high level (96 percent) among the adult consumer population. However, the majority of consumers (53 percent) disagreed somewhat or strongly with the statement “I like seeing advertisements directed to consumers for prescription drugs.” The majority of consumers (69 percent) agree strongly or somewhat that DTCA does not provide adequate information on the risks and benefits of advertised products. It appears that the use of DTCA by pharmaceutical companies is not stimulating nearly the information‐gathering response reported in past studies.

Small sample size makes this survey exploratory.

This negativism may impair the usefulness of this type of advertising in the future. As television, magazine, radio, and other traditional media become less important, the internet may become an important channel for the growth of DTCA. Given the growing negativism of consumers, it is clear that significant changes in DTCA practices are necessary. Without significant changes, DTCA may become impractical or even prohibited.

The article adds to longitudinal data on consumer attitudes towards DTCA. It is hoped that this study will suggest areas for subsequent research and will elaborate on the practical consequences of DTCA and its implications for public health and welfare.

Intermediate short food supply chains (SFSC) have been presented as a possible solution to unsustainable global food supply chains. There is currently a knowledge gap about intermediate SFSC. Thus, this review synthesizes the available literature to identify prominent themes and their main considerations.

This research is based on a systematic literature review including peer-reviewed journal articles until December 2021. Inductive data coding resulted in the identification of four themes related to intermediate SFSC.

The identified themes illustrate the complex landscape intermediate SFSCs operate in and focus on the key relationships within these supply chains. The established relationships have implications for the governance of intermediate SFSCs. The organization of intermediate SFSCs affects numerous sustainability indicators.

Future research should focus on the position intermediate SFSCs have in food systems and the roles intermediaries have in intermediate SFSCs. There is furthermore an opportunity for researchers to investigate different types of intermediaries and explore the factors influencing them.

Creating sustainable food supply chains is one of the major societal challenges of today. The current state of the art suggests that intermediate SFSCs could play an important role in achieving this. So far, this area is underdeveloped and this review highlights knowledge gaps in the literature and suggestions for a future research agenda are proposed.

Direct‐to‐consumer advertising (DTCA) is a pervasive element in society today. Consumers have responded accordingly by becoming more knowledgeable, developing specific perceptions and attitudes toward DTCA. The purpose of this article is to examine direct‐to‐consumer prescription drug advertising issues among younger adults as both consumers and caregivers to determine whether companies are, or should be, taking advantage of building brand value through DTCA.

A sample of 225 young adults answered questionnaires to measure the effects of DTCA. The questionnaire was based on a study by the National Consumers League and only the items that were most central to the current study were utilized and/or modified to measure the following key variables: age; current health status; prescription drug use; attitudes toward DTCA; interest in DTCA; DTCA recall; and inclination to seek additional information.

The findings show that demographics influence attitudes and interest in DTCA, as well as younger consumers' interest and propensity to seek additional information for themselves and family members. Details of the statistical analysis of the study are given.

The implications of the findings for pharmaceutical marketers, health care advisors, and academic researchers are discussed in the paper.