First: a screen does not have to say everything
People installing screens for the first time tend to ask what content they need. The more useful question is who is looking, where they are at that moment and how long they have. What belongs in the window looks nothing like what works at the counter, and the three-minute video that holds up in the waiting area is wasted on the pavement.
This guide is informational and covers pharmacies in Spain. If you are looking for the service itself, with window, interior and counter screen options, see the page on digital signage for pharmacies. What follows is about what comes after buying or deciding: what to show, what to avoid and how to tell whether it works.
Where each screen sits and what it should say
It helps to think in three moments. This is not an official classification, only a practical way to split up messages.
| Location | How long the customer has | What works | What is wasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Window | A glance from the pavement | Pharmacy name, opening hours, on-duty rota, services with one clear fact, seasonal campaign | Long text, small print, any medicine |
| Waiting area | Minutes, ticket in hand | A short health tip, services customers do not know exist, a parapharmacy brand campaign | Messages that demand close reading |
| Counter | Seconds, just before paying | One idea only: a promotion, a service, a recommendation | Several offers at once, video with sound |
Pharmacy screens do not compete with a TV advert. They compete with the customer's phone. A short sentence, one number and one action usually beat a well-built but long message.
The official FarmaConnect website describes LED or LCD window screens, interior screens and counter screens, scheduled by screen, zone and dates. For technical detail or models, ask on a video call; this guide does not cover hardware.
What to show: six kinds of content that fit
1. Seasonal health tips
This is the content that best matches what people expect from a pharmacy. Hydration in summer, sun protection, spring allergies, vitamin D in winter, foot care, what to do after a sting. The point is that it is advice, not an advert.
A good tip is one that would still be useful if no product stood behind it. "Drink water even if you are not thirsty" is a tip; "With X you are protected" is a promise. Once a tip drifts into naming a specific product with health effects, it starts to enter the territory the law regulates, so read the limits section below.
Public health messages (vaccination, screening, safe medication use) work well when they have a source anyone can check. If the screen repeats a recommendation from a health authority, say where it comes from.
2. Pharmacy services
The most underused content. Many customers do not know the pharmacy measures blood pressure, runs rapid tests, offers medication review, prepares personalised dosage systems (SPD) or has an orthopaedics corner. A screen can say what the team has no time to repeat ten times a day.
For it to work, each service needs a concrete detail: what it is, how long it takes, whether you need an appointment and who to ask. A service without that information is decoration. If the pharmacy does not offer something, it does not go on screen for the sake of completeness.
3. Opening hours, on-duty rota and notices
It sounds obvious, but this is what goes out of date fastest on paper. Summer hours, local holidays, the week's duty pharmacy (farmacia de guardia), roadworks, a new phone number. It is where a screen beats a paper sign by the widest margin, and the cheapest content to keep current.
4. Parapharmacy, dermocosmetics and personal care promotions
This is the commercial part, and it is legitimate. Parapharmacy has commercial room that medicines do not. What matters is that what you show is true and that the screen price matches the till. If the pharmacy uses electronic shelf labels, that consistency is easier to maintain; there is more in the guide to electronic shelf labels for pharmacies.
The rules for these promotions are not the rules for medicines, but it is not a free-for-all either: a parapharmacy product cannot be advertised as if it prevented or cured disease. The limits section explains.
5. Brand and laboratory campaigns
Dermocosmetics, hygiene and nutrition brands often supply their own material: videos, banners, brand images. Treat it with the same caution as any other content, because when it plays in your shop, your shop is the one publishing it. The fact that the brand supplied it does not move the responsibility. Third-party paid advertising on screens is a separate field, covered in the guide to retail media in pharmacies.
Before accepting a piece from a brand, ask three questions: exactly what product is it (medicine, medical device, supplement, cosmetic), what does it claim, and who has checked that the claim is allowed.
6. The pharmacy's own content
Introducing the team, the history of the shop, a special date. Nobody else's pharmacy can copy it, and it needs hardly any regulatory review. A screen with nothing but sales messages is tiring; one that shows a familiar face from the neighbourhood changes the tone.
What not to show: the limits set by Spanish rules
The delicate part is medicines. It helps to separate three situations, because different rules apply to each. The rules cited are national Spanish law, published in Spanish in the Official State Gazette (BOE). The English renderings of legal text in this guide are our own and have no official standing.
Medicines
Article 80 of the consolidated Medicines Act (Ley de garantías y uso racional de los medicamentos), which governs advertising of medicines to the public, only allows advertising to the public for medicines that:
- are not publicly funded;
- are designed to be used without a diagnosis, prescription or medical follow-up (apart from vaccination campaigns approved by the health authorities);
- contain no psychotropic or narcotic substances.
Royal Decree 1416/1994 sets out the same and adds that medicines forming part of the National Health System's pharmaceutical benefit are excluded.
In practice: no pharmacy screen may advertise a prescription medicine, or a publicly funded one, even if a laboratory asks and even if only the name appears. It is advertising to the public, which the law rules out.
For medicines that can be advertised (those dispensed without prescription and not publicly funded), the law requires the advertising to:
- be clearly identified as advertising and state that the product is a medicine;
- include the name, the common name where there is a single active ingredient, and the information needed for correct use;
- invite people to read the leaflet or packaging and recommend consulting a pharmacist;
- not promise a cure or use testimonials from people whose fame could encourage consumption;
- not present the marketing authorisation or health registration as a selling point.
Article 80 also bans bonuses, gifts, prizes and contests tied to these medicines. That includes "buy one, get one free" applied to a medicine. On a pharmacy screen, that is exactly the kind of message a signage designer might add without thinking.
There is one discrepancy worth care. The consolidated Act (art. 80.3) states that advertising for non-prescription medicines does not need prior administrative authorisation, and that the health authorities check it afterwards. Royal Decree 1416/1994, in its current consolidated text, still says in article 22 that advertising to the public requires prior authorisation. What each autonomous community requires today must be confirmed with the health authority or with the professional college, not assumed. This guide does not settle it.
More context in the post on what you can and cannot advertise about a medicine and in the guide to price and advertising rules. The practical rule for a screen is simple: if a medicine is the star, do not run it without checking first.
Products with claimed health purposes
This covers products, materials, substances or methods presented as useful for diagnosing, preventing or treating disease, slimming or altering body functions. Royal Decree 1907/1996 generally prohibits direct or indirect advertising of them, with exceptions, and lists specific cases. The ones that most affect a pharmacy screen are:
- attributing a preventive or curative effect against communicable diseases, cancer, diabetes, insomnia or metabolic diseases;
- suggesting slimming properties;
- promising guaranteed relief or cure;
- relying on checks or authorisations by the health authority;
- referring to their use in health centres or their distribution through pharmacies;
- using testimonials from health professionals, celebrities or patients, real or fictitious;
- presenting them as a substitute for a medicine or for a consultation with a professional;
- using "natural" to suggest a preventive or therapeutic effect;
- attributing effects not backed by sufficient evidence.
One detail catches people out: citing that a product "is sold in pharmacies" as an endorsement is among the prohibited cases for this type of product. Phrases such as "recommended by pharmacists" or "only in pharmacies" deserve a hard look before going on screen.
Foods and supplements
For food supplements, health claims are regulated EU-wide by Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, which starts from a simple idea: only authorised claims, listed in the Union's official register, may be used. "Contributes to the normal function of the immune system" may be permitted for a particular nutrient under particular conditions; "boosts your defences" or "prevents colds" need not be. To find out whether a specific phrase is authorised, check the European Commission's register of claims rather than trusting the supplier's material.
Cosmetics and everything else
Misleading or unfair advertising is prohibited in general by the General Advertising Act (Ley General de Publicidad), including for cosmetics and any parapharmacy product. A sign that misleads about a product's characteristics is unlawful even if the product itself is perfectly legal.
Then there is personal data: if a screen shows a customer's photo, a name or a prescription, or if cameras are linked to the screen, other rules apply. That is covered in data protection and screens in the pharmacy.
Quick summary for deciding on the spot
| What you want to show | Allowed? | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Prescription or publicly funded medicine | No | Nothing to do: it falls outside advertising to the public |
| Non-prescription, unfunded medicine | With conditions | Mandatory messages, no gifts or bonuses, check beforehand |
| General health tip | Yes | That it does not drift into a promise about a product |
| Pharmacy service | Yes | That it is real and available |
| Food supplement | With conditions | Authorised claims only |
| "Miracle", slimming or curative product | No | Avoid |
| Cosmetics or hygiene | Yes | No claims that mislead |
This table is guidance, not an opinion on a specific case. A piece the table leaves in the grey area gets checked, not broadcast.
A content calendar you can keep up
The usual mistake is to build an ambitious calendar in January and drop it by March. A quarterly skeleton with room for the unexpected is more realistic.
One possible pattern:
- Fixed all year. Opening hours, duty rota, services, meet the team. Review when something changes.
- Seasonal, every two or three months. A health tip tied to the time of year: sun and heat, allergies, back to school, colds and flu, cold weather and dry skin.
- Commercial campaigns, with start and end dates. Parapharmacy promotions, special days, brand campaigns. The end date is the important one: whatever is not taken down on time becomes a lying sign.
- Key dates. World health days, official vaccination campaigns, the pharmacy's own dates.
For each piece, note four things: what it says, which screen it runs on, from which date to which date, and who reviewed it. A shared spreadsheet is enough. For deeper commercial planning of the year, see the post on the pharmacy campaign calendar.
A few rules that save trouble:
- Give each screen one job. If the counter shows six things, it shows none.
- Keep a loop to a minute or two. Beyond that, the customer does not see both the beginning and the end.
- Make video work without sound. Sound is a nuisance in a pharmacy and hardly anyone hears it.
- Have one person responsible for approval. With no name attached, pieces pile up and nobody removes them.
- Pull anything expired, daily if needed. An old price or opening time on screen is worse than a switched-off screen.
The official FarmaConnect website mentions a library of more than 500 videos for pharmacies and scheduling with start and end dates. If you use ready-made content, treat it like any other: check what each piece says against the criteria in the previous section before scheduling it.
How to measure whether the screens work
This is the step most often skipped and the one that most helps you decide whether to keep investing. You do not need complicated analytics; you need to decide beforehand what you expect.
What to measure by goal
| Goal of the piece | What to look at | How |
|---|---|---|
| Sell more of a parapharmacy category | Units and sales of that category | Pharmacy software report, before and during the campaign |
| Make a service known | Enquiries or bookings for the service | Counter log or appointment book |
| Cut repetitive questions (hours, duty rota) | Questions at the counter | Manual tally for a week, before and after |
| Improve how the wait feels | Customer comments | A direct question to a sample, or a simple suggestion box |
Three rules so you do not fool yourself
- Baseline. Before switching anything on, write down how much was selling or how many enquiries there were. Without that, no comparison is possible.
- Compare with an equivalent period. A sun-protection campaign in July sells more than in February, screen or no screen. What counts is the difference against the same period last year or against a similar category with no campaign.
- One change at a time. If the screen, the prices and the decor all change in the same month, you cannot tell what moved the result.
And an honest caveat: in a small pharmacy, with few sales per category, one month may not be enough to see a difference that is not noise. Better to accumulate several campaigns and compare them together than to draw conclusions from a single one.
If the platform offers playback reports, they are for checking that a piece ran when it should have, not for proving that it sold. Which reports FarmaConnect offers is still to be confirmed.
An example of how a week might be divided
Picture a neighbourhood pharmacy with three screens in mid-September. It is not a real case, only one possible split.
- Window: autumn opening hours, the week's duty pharmacy and a single campaign message (back to school: hygiene and vitamins for children, with no claims about defences).
- Waiting area: a tip on flu vaccination with the source of the recommendation, the blood pressure service with day and time, and one dermocosmetics piece from a brand, reviewed beforehand.
- Counter: a single parapharmacy promotion with price and end date, identical to the shelf label.
On Monday the pharmacy notes how many units of the promotion have sold and compares a month later. If few customers have had their blood pressure taken, it changes the wording of the service, not the screen.
Mistakes that keep repeating
- Turning the screen into a catalogue. There is no time to read forty products. One is better.
- Playing the brand's video without watching it all. It is the commonest way to end up broadcasting a message you should not have.
- Leaving expired content up. An "until 30 June" in September undermines everything else.
- Mixing screen and till prices. If they differ, the customer trusts the till and keeps the doubt.
- Not deciding who is in charge. If the whole team can upload content with no criteria, the screen reflects the taste of whoever came in last.
Where to go next
If you have not yet decided which screens you need, start with the page on digital signage for pharmacies. For the legal framework, the guide to price and advertising rules and the post on advertising medicines. And if you are interested in brands paying for space on your screens, the retail media guide explains how it works and what changes in a pharmacy.
This guide summarises official sources as of November 2026 and does not replace legal advice or the judgement of your professional college.
Sources
- Texto refundido de la Ley de garantías y uso racional de los medicamentos y productos sanitarios, art. 80 (BOE)
- Real Decreto 1416/1994, por el que se regula la publicidad de los medicamentos de uso humano (BOE, texto consolidado)
- Real Decreto 1907/1996, sobre publicidad y promoción comercial de productos con pretendida finalidad sanitaria (BOE, texto consolidado)
- Ley 34/1988, General de Publicidad (BOE, texto consolidado)
- Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods (EUR-Lex)
