Thirty years ago, kids seemed way overmedicated. They were given the antipsychotic Thorazine for their "hyperactivity," "hostility," sleep problems and even for vomiting. Kids with tics, stuttering, and school phobia were given the tranquillizer Miltown. Picky eaters and kids who wet the bed were also given tranquillizers.
But today, overmedication of kids continues and ads are aimed at parents as unabashedly as breakfast cereal. Give your kid the bubble gum-flavored ADHD med, LiquADD, says one ad. "Give 'em the Grape" says another for the grape flavored ADHD med, Methylin.
DTC advertising has also convinced parents their kids suffer from GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) otherwise known as Acid Reflux Disease, which was barely a disease in adults much less kids before consumer advertising. "GERD Can Be a Big Problem for Little Kids," say award-winning ads for Prevacid.
In Europe kids are treated for another "adult disease" and given chewable Lipitor to lower their cholesterol.
Some of Pharma's most aggressive advertising has been designed to convince parents their children's minor sniffles or wheezing are imminent asthma and require immediate and expensive drugs. To make the asthma drug Singulair (which also comes in a yummy chewable) the seventh most popular drug in 2010 Merck inked partnerships with the American Academy of Pediatrics and Scholastic, both of which parents consider neutral organizations not Pharma mouthpieces. Merck also partnered with Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Peter Vanderkaay and NBA kid clubs to sell the asthma drug.
If Singulair were not harmful, the huckstering would simply be a case of wasting money and overmedicating kids. But Singulair has been linked to both pediatric suicide and to emotional, behavioral and ADHD-like symptoms in kids, the latter likely inspiring parents to give their kids "the grape."
Of course another kid-targeted campaign is for the vaccine against the sexually transmitted Papillomavirus or HPV, immortalized by Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann in hot exchanges this fall. It's no secret that vaccines are Pharma's latest profit centers and government recommendations are helping to ring the cash register.
Last spring, poster-sized ads for Gardasil on Chicago's commuter trains pretended to sell real estate in sought after neighborhoods. A closer look revealed descriptions of women in those neighborhoods who thought they didn't need the HPV vaccine but did, positioning HPV not only as a general risk to the population, like flu, rather than an STD but as "cool."
HPV vaccine ads got even cooler when GSK rolled out Cervarix extravaganza TV ads and its "armed against cervical cancer" campaign with an Angelina Jolie-like model displaying a skinny arm with a Cervarix tattoo.
Be-Like-Me and Can-Your-Beer-Do-This? ads
Prescription drugs may affect health, but they are still consumer products sold with the same marketing principles as toothpaste or beer. In fact, the wacky, "Can Your Beer
Do This?" Miller Lite campaign of the 1990s, came back to life to sell the antidepressant Wellbutrin XR! In a glossy, color magazine ad, a young man rows his girlfriend on a scenic lake and lists the benefits of his Wellbutrin XR. "Can your medicine do all that?" he asks. What does it say about the success of DTC advertising that people are assumed to have an antidepressant?
Experiential ads also sell prescription drugs like vintage ads for the "Kodak Moment," "Maalox Moment" and the old cigarette ads for the "L&M Moment" did. "Lunesta Sleep. Have You Tried it?" asks a 2007 ad in Parade magazine, elevating the experience to something akin to "designer sleep."
And just as celebrities move other consumer products, they have been deployed to sell prescription drugs. TV personality Joan Lunden and former baseball star Mike Piazza stumped for the allergy pill Claritin, ice skater Dorothy Hamill and track star Bruce Jenner for the pain pill Vioxx, and Sen. Bob Dole, of course, for Viagra. NASCAR figure Bobby Labonte also endorsed the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL in 2004. Yes, his medicine could "do all that."
But there has been a problem with celebrity drug endorsements. Unlike product endorsements in which a celebrity like Tiger Woods or Martha Stewart could taint a product, a prescription drug can taint a celebrity! Did Dorothy Hamill know that Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attacks in users when she stumped for it? Did the model Lauren Hutton know that hormone replacement therapy causes a 26 percent higher incidence of breast cancer, a 29 percent increase in heart attacks, a 41 percent increase in strokes, and a doubling of the rate of blood clots when she shilled for it? Does actress Sally Field know that bone drugs like Boniva are linked to esophageal cancer, jaw bone death and the very fractures they are supposed to prevent as she pushes them?
Of course, good product marketing includes public relations. When Pharma sells a disease with no mention of the drug it is really selling, it's called "unbranded" advertising. Since DTC advertising, Pharma has invaded public service announcements (PSAs) that TV and radio stations confer for free, pretending their take-a-drug messages serve the public good, like messages to change smoke detector batteries or put kids in car seats.
One such "educational" "awareness" campaign called "Depression is Real" saturated the radio air waves in 2011, funded by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which was investigated by Congress for its Pharma funding from Wyeth, part of Pfizer, and other groups. The high budget ads, running for free, compare depression to diabetes because it doesn't go away and cancer because it can be fatal. Luckily there is an an$wer.
But today, overmedication of kids continues and ads are aimed at parents as unabashedly as breakfast cereal. Give your kid the bubble gum-flavored ADHD med, LiquADD, says one ad. "Give 'em the Grape" says another for the grape flavored ADHD med, Methylin.
DTC advertising has also convinced parents their kids suffer from GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) otherwise known as Acid Reflux Disease, which was barely a disease in adults much less kids before consumer advertising. "GERD Can Be a Big Problem for Little Kids," say award-winning ads for Prevacid.
In Europe kids are treated for another "adult disease" and given chewable Lipitor to lower their cholesterol.
Some of Pharma's most aggressive advertising has been designed to convince parents their children's minor sniffles or wheezing are imminent asthma and require immediate and expensive drugs. To make the asthma drug Singulair (which also comes in a yummy chewable) the seventh most popular drug in 2010 Merck inked partnerships with the American Academy of Pediatrics and Scholastic, both of which parents consider neutral organizations not Pharma mouthpieces. Merck also partnered with Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Peter Vanderkaay and NBA kid clubs to sell the asthma drug.
If Singulair were not harmful, the huckstering would simply be a case of wasting money and overmedicating kids. But Singulair has been linked to both pediatric suicide and to emotional, behavioral and ADHD-like symptoms in kids, the latter likely inspiring parents to give their kids "the grape."
Of course another kid-targeted campaign is for the vaccine against the sexually transmitted Papillomavirus or HPV, immortalized by Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann in hot exchanges this fall. It's no secret that vaccines are Pharma's latest profit centers and government recommendations are helping to ring the cash register.
Last spring, poster-sized ads for Gardasil on Chicago's commuter trains pretended to sell real estate in sought after neighborhoods. A closer look revealed descriptions of women in those neighborhoods who thought they didn't need the HPV vaccine but did, positioning HPV not only as a general risk to the population, like flu, rather than an STD but as "cool."
HPV vaccine ads got even cooler when GSK rolled out Cervarix extravaganza TV ads and its "armed against cervical cancer" campaign with an Angelina Jolie-like model displaying a skinny arm with a Cervarix tattoo.
Be-Like-Me and Can-Your-Beer-Do-This? ads
Prescription drugs may affect health, but they are still consumer products sold with the same marketing principles as toothpaste or beer. In fact, the wacky, "Can Your Beer
Do This?" Miller Lite campaign of the 1990s, came back to life to sell the antidepressant Wellbutrin XR! In a glossy, color magazine ad, a young man rows his girlfriend on a scenic lake and lists the benefits of his Wellbutrin XR. "Can your medicine do all that?" he asks. What does it say about the success of DTC advertising that people are assumed to have an antidepressant?
Experiential ads also sell prescription drugs like vintage ads for the "Kodak Moment," "Maalox Moment" and the old cigarette ads for the "L&M Moment" did. "Lunesta Sleep. Have You Tried it?" asks a 2007 ad in Parade magazine, elevating the experience to something akin to "designer sleep."
And just as celebrities move other consumer products, they have been deployed to sell prescription drugs. TV personality Joan Lunden and former baseball star Mike Piazza stumped for the allergy pill Claritin, ice skater Dorothy Hamill and track star Bruce Jenner for the pain pill Vioxx, and Sen. Bob Dole, of course, for Viagra. NASCAR figure Bobby Labonte also endorsed the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL in 2004. Yes, his medicine could "do all that."
But there has been a problem with celebrity drug endorsements. Unlike product endorsements in which a celebrity like Tiger Woods or Martha Stewart could taint a product, a prescription drug can taint a celebrity! Did Dorothy Hamill know that Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attacks in users when she stumped for it? Did the model Lauren Hutton know that hormone replacement therapy causes a 26 percent higher incidence of breast cancer, a 29 percent increase in heart attacks, a 41 percent increase in strokes, and a doubling of the rate of blood clots when she shilled for it? Does actress Sally Field know that bone drugs like Boniva are linked to esophageal cancer, jaw bone death and the very fractures they are supposed to prevent as she pushes them?
Of course, good product marketing includes public relations. When Pharma sells a disease with no mention of the drug it is really selling, it's called "unbranded" advertising. Since DTC advertising, Pharma has invaded public service announcements (PSAs) that TV and radio stations confer for free, pretending their take-a-drug messages serve the public good, like messages to change smoke detector batteries or put kids in car seats.
One such "educational" "awareness" campaign called "Depression is Real" saturated the radio air waves in 2011, funded by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which was investigated by Congress for its Pharma funding from Wyeth, part of Pfizer, and other groups. The high budget ads, running for free, compare depression to diabetes because it doesn't go away and cancer because it can be fatal. Luckily there is an an$wer.
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