Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8658

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

Coombes R.
Having the last laugh at big pharma
BMJ 2007 Feb 24; 334:(7590):396
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7590/396

Abstract:

How campaigners are creating humorous videos to hit back at the drug industry

Satire is becoming the latest weapon of campaigners against the influence of drug companies. A series of wickedly clever parodies has been posted in recent months on internet sites such as YouTube (www.youtube.com) and has quickly proved successful in communicating an anti-“big pharma” message to a wide audience.

The most popular spoofs in circulation target direct to consumer drug advertising, which was legalised in the United States in 1997 and is now a mainstay of the country’s television advertising. The object of the lampooning is the way in which drug companies, it is suggested, turn ordinary ailments into medical problems. The new breed of satirists claim that prescription drug advertisements are now so powerful that they can convince well people that they are sick and need the advertised drug.

The current buzz is around a mock advertising campaign for “Havidol” (as in “Have it all”), a sharply observed . . .