If you want to get a better idea why pharmaceutical ads may one day be a thing of the past, I highly recommend this Seattle Times feature that describes the deft skills used by mega-drug company marketers to instill fear into consumers in order to push their potentially toxic drugs on an unknowing market.
A good example as any is the ad pictured on the right that's designed to instill irrational fear by using an image of a beautiful young women with long legs -- think deep vein thrombosis -- to push Lovenox (a blood thinner produced by Aventis) on healthy patients. But deep vein thrombosis largely affects patients age 60 and older who are recovering from surgery, injury or an immobilizing illness, so why use the "killer legs" image at all? The article argues, rightly, to target healthier, younger people who fly long distances.
And that's just for starters. The other marketing slight-of-hand Aventis used to push Lovenox:
- Airport billboards warning fliers about economy class syndrome.
- Funding the Coalition to Prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis.
- Planting favorable stories in the media.
- Gaining traction for the bogus syndrome by manipulating the World Health Organization to sponsor a two-day conference and a study (of course partly funded by Aventis).
If this doesn't show you how evil and deceptive drug companies can be...
Seattle Times June 26, 2005