Feature

If you've got it, <br> flaunt it </br>

Pharma companies are giving OTC brands a makeover by splurging on advertising

Illustration by Kishore Das

With actresses invading our collective bathrooms to check our toothpastes for salt and TV presenters making their way to the loo to sell floor cleaners, perhaps the day was not far when our national cricket team began peddling medical formulations. But even by those consumeristic standards, the ad featuring cricketer Rohit Sharma endorsing Nasivion nasal drops comes as a surprise. While you might have thought prescribing nasal decongestants was your ENT specialist’s job, we live in a world where do-it-yourself (DIY) is fast becoming the dictum, and pharma companies seem to be on board with that philosophy. In the pharma world, DIY can be conveniently packaged as ‘self-care’, implying the companies’ arsenal of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.