Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs, 1/7

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www.encognitive.com Doctors might not be crazy about the thought, but patients are walking into their offices asking for specific drugs. They have heard about them on TV or read about them in magazines. Askier travels blissfully down a mountain of ragweed, his skis in perfect position as pollen scatters across a parched mountain landscape. Quick–is this an advertisement for weed killer, a new type of skiing, or an allergy drug? Unless you’ve stayed away from magazines and TV this year, you probably know this is an ad for Allegra, an allergy drug manufactured by Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. The caption reads “This allergy season, live with ahhhbandon. Ahhh! Allegra!” The Allegra print campaign is one of a multitude of highly visible prescription’ drug advertisements aimed directly at the public. Ever since federal regulations changed laws governing the advertising of prescription drugs in the 1980s, such advertising efforts have taken off. Manufacturers spent $137 million on direct-to-consumer drug advertising on television alone in 1996, according to IMS America and Nielsen Media Research. Advertising is also extensive in most major consumer magazines. “They’re spending a ton of money” says Jack Trout, a marketing expert based in Greenwich, Connecticut, and author of The New Positioning: The Latest on the World’s Number 1 Business Strategy. “They’re keeping these magazines afloat.” findarticles.com

Tags: Disease, Drugs, Marketing, Pushing
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Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease & Pushing Drugs

www.mediaed.org Huge Bucks, Huge Pharma pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry to expose the insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances made, for capital gain. Focusing on the industry’s marketing practices, media scholars and health professionals help viewers know the ways in which direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription medication, and works in tandem with promotion to doctors. Combined, these industry practices shape how both patients and doctors know and relate to disease and treatment. Ultimately, Huge Bucks, Huge Pharma challenges us to question vital questions about the consequences of relying on a for-profit industry for our health and well-being. Featuring interviews with Dr. Marcia Angell (Dept. of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Former Editor New England Journal of Medicine), Dr. Bob Goodman (Columbia University Medical Center; Founder, No Free Lunch), Gene Carbona (Former Pharmaceutical Industry Insider and Current Executive Director of Sales, The Medical Letter), Katharine Greider (Journalist; Author, The Huge Fix How the Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers,), Dr. Elizabeth Preston (Dept. of Communication, Westfield State College), and Dr. Larry Sasich (Public Citizen Health Research Group).

Tags: Bucks, Disease, Drugs, Marketing, Pharma, Pushing
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