Drug marketing is the process of actualizing various markets for pharmaceutical care. It involves both pharmaceutical products and services and tries to anticipate, facilitate, or enlarge relationships between those who produce and those who need drugs and associated services. Drug marketing consists of many related activities, such as product development, pricing, packaging, distribution, and promotion. Marketing is viewed by many outside the discipline as commercialism and thus lacking in professionalism. Further, pharmaceutical marketing is perceived as pushing drugs on the public. Several problems may result from inappropriate drug advertising and promotion: inappropriate prescription and use of drugs, increased risk of drug use problems, premature removal of valuable drugs, increased health care costs, litigation, and harm to product or company image. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has targeted prescription drug advertising and promotion as a field requiring improvement from the regulatory perspective. In addition, consumers and consumer advocacy groups are seeking changes in traditional approaches to drug development, distribution, and promotion. Self-regulation of drug advertising by manufacturers is discussed, along with the FDA's evolving role in prescription drug promotion, the Federal Trade Commission's role in regulating nonprescription drug advertising, the role of marketing research during drug development, and the influence of pharmaceutical industry advertising on physician prescribing. Consideration is also given to gender differences in drug advertising, the influence of drug advertising on children's drug use attitudes, drug promotion in self-care and medication, and pharmaceutical promotion in the Third World. References, tables, and figures