Franken Proposal Threatens Ad Deductibility

On October 8, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and cosponsors Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced a bill (S.1763) entitled "Protecting Americans from Drug Marketing Act," which would disallow the deduction for DTC prescription drug advertising and promotional expenses.  

These Senators are pushing to convince the leadership to add their bill to the health care legislation now being developed or plan to offer the bill as an amendment on the Senate floor. We have sent a letter to the entire Senate describing why taxing DTC ads is a bad idea. 

While the immediate target is the pharmaceutical industry, this proposal raises very serious threats for the deductibility of marketing costs for all other products and services.

It would be very helpful if your company could immediately contact the members of the United States Senate to express your opposition to any restriction on the deduction for marketing costs for any product or service. Contact information is available at http://www.senate.gov/

Here are some talking points you may want to use in your contacts.

It is critical that you make these contacts immediately. ANA is working with all other marketing and media associations to let Congress know that we stand united in opposition to any attack on ad deductibility.

If you have any questions about this matter, please contact Dan Jaffe (djaffe@ana.net) in ANA's Washington, D.C. office at 202.296.1883. Please let us know of any feedback you get from these contacts.