Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6749

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Promotional war for genital herpes drugs
MaLAM Australian News 1997 Jul-Aug; 5:(7-8):2-3

Abstract:

Glaxo-Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham are competing for market share for drugs against genital herpes. SmithKline Beecham has used indirect promotion to the public, while Glaxo-Wellcome has sent out inaccurate press releases. SmithKline Beecham has also had to publish a corrective letter because of a misleading advertisement.

Keywords:
*analysis/Australia/developed countries/Glaxo-Wellcome/SmithKline Beecham/antiviral drugs/ sexually transmitted diseases/ DTCA/ direct-to-consumer advertising/ market share/ press conferences and releases/corrective information/MaLAM/Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing/ journal advertisements/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER ADVERTISING/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: JOURNAL ADVERTISEMENTS/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: MARKET SHARE/PROMOTION AND HEALTH NEEDS: PROMOTION IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES/PROMOTION DISGUISED: PRESS CONFERENCES AND PRESS COVERAGE

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Cases of wilful misrepresentation are a rarity in medical advertising. For every advertisement in which nonexistent doctors are called on to testify or deliberately irrelevant references are bunched up in [fine print], you will find a hundred or more whose greatest offenses are unquestioning enthusiasm and the skill to communicate it.

The best defence the physician can muster against this kind of advertising is a healthy skepticism and a willingness, not always apparent in the past, to do his homework. He must cultivate a flair for spotting the logical loophole, the invalid clinical trial, the unreliable or meaningless testimonial, the unneeded improvement and the unlikely claim. Above all, he must develop greater resistance to the lure of the fashionable and the new.
- Pierre R. Garai (advertising executive) 1963