 Pharmaceutical companies shifted the focus of their marketing efforts to licensed medical doctors in the 1970s, as the FDA mandated that only doctors could prescribe medicine.However, a larger movement towards autonomy in health care decisions prompted the first prominent examples of direct-to-consumer advertising.Merck published the first print DTC ad for a pneumonia vaccine (with a particular focus on those aged 65 years or older), and Boots Pharmaceuticals aired the first DTC commercial in 1983 for the prescription ibuprofen Rufen.