Drugs, Money, Media and Advertising
Ads for pharmaceutical drugs are everywhere. They are in magazines, on television and radio, on billboards, and on the little bags that you get from the pharmacist. These days it is difficult to get away from all the drug advertising. All these ads are for products that require a doctor's prescription. The goal of advertising is to increase profits. By advertising so heavily for drugs that the majority of the population does not need, pharmaceutical companies attempt to create as large a consumer base as they can. In advertising directly to the consumer, the drug companies accomplish two objectives. First, they get information directly to the consumer. Second, they promote the product and generate demand for their particular drug.
Whether this type of direct-to-consumer advertising is good or bad depends on your perspective. The controversy about drug advertisement lies in how drug companies use the money generated by ads and how they choose to advertise their products. Some argue that the pharmaceutical companies just pocket the profits generated by ads, while the companies themselves say that the money is needed for the research and development of new cutting-edge drugs. The information that the drug companies provide in the ads can be both informative and misleading. Deciding which side is right or wrong may be more difficult than we think, as both sides make good arguments for their case. More likely than not, the answer lies somewhere in between, with both sides being right and wrong.
Allergy drugs such as Claritin, Allegra, and Flonase have become very popular in recent years. In 2000, Claritin was fifteenth in the 200 most prescribed drugs in the US, wh...
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Public Citizen. (31 Aug. 2000). Schering-Plough Political Money Pushes Claritin Patent Extension and Distorts Report. Public Citizen. http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=369. (7 Oct. 2001).
Sanes, K. (2000). The Fake Haven of Claritin. Popular Culture. http://www.transparencynow.com/claritin/claritin.htm. (7 Oct. 2001).
Scott-Levin (2001) The Top 200 Prescription for 2000 by Number of US Prescriptions Dispensed. http://www.rxlist.com/top200.htm. (6 Oct. 20001).
Secondwind (2001) Direct-to-Consumer Advertising. Second Wind. http://www.secondwindmagazine.org/issues/2001/spring/feature.html. (7 Oct. 2001).
Swanson, Jack. (2001). Personal Interview. 17 Aug 2001.
Tidwell, J. (31 Aug. 2000). Claritin Patent Gets Extension. Allergies. http://allergies.about.com/library/weekly/aa082100a.htm?once=true&. (7 Oct. 2001).
First, Allround needs to increase its sales force, with emphasis on increasing mass merchandiser based on the marketshare news. We planned to increase drugstores, and grocery stores by 3.5% and mass merchandisers by 12%. We based the volume discount on the budget. Allround needs to remove “ reduces chest congestion, dries up runny nose” from the list of benefits. Customers don’t perceive Allround to be effective at curing those symptoms. Allround should drop alcohol and appeal to families, and include “won’t cause drowsiness.” As the product becomes mature, the “reminder” percentage should be increased. When Allround launches a non-drowsy allergy product in later periods, it can compete against Believe, which only has antihistamines. Allround
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. It is a reversible airway obstruction, occurring 8 to 10% of the population worldwide. According to a study in 2005, asthma affects over 15 million Americans, with more than 2 million annual emergency room visits. Asthma patients have a hyper-responsiveness in their airways and generally and increase in their airway smooth muscle cell mass. This hyperplasia is due to the normal response to the injury and repair to the airway caused by exacerbations. The main choice of therapy for asthma patients is β2- adrenergic agonists. Racemic albuterol has been the drug of choice for a short acting bronchodilator for a long time, but since the development of levalbuterol, there is the question of which drug is a better choice for therapy. Efficacy and cost of treatment must both be taken into consideration in each study of these therapies to determine which is best for the treatment of asthma.
In Melody Peterson’s “Our Daily Meds” , the history of marketing and advertising in the pharmaceutical industry is explored. The first chapter of the book, entitled “Creating disease”, focuses on how major pharmaceutical companies successfully create new ailments that members of the public believe exist. According to Peterson, the success that these drug manufacturers have experienced can be attributed to the malleability of disease, the use of influencial people to promote new drugs, the marketing behind pills, and the use of media outlets.
In order to take advantage of this demand, five billion dollars is spent by the pharmaceutical industry on marketing each year. This marketing, usually in the form of advertisements, often distorts facts and makes the necessity for drug treatment seem greater.... ... middle of paper ... ... Washington, D.C.:
The United States of America accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, yet as a nation, we devour over 50% of the world’s pharmaceutical medication and around 80% of the world’s prescription narcotics (American Addict). The increasing demand for prescription medication in America has evoked a national health crisis in which the government and big business benefit at the expense of the American public.
Ads if used correctly are what will draw the target audience the makers are attempting to reach. Simply using a catchy catch phrase could make something people view as a horrible experience such as getting a flu shot into something necessary. Ad campaigns are successful when using persuasive media techniques to draw in their attended audience.
In Melody Peterson’s “Our Daily Meds” , the history of marketing and advertising in the pharmaceutical industry is explored. The first chapter of the book, entitled “Creating disease”, focuses on how major pharmaceutical companies successfully create new ailments that members of the public believe exist. According to Peterson, the success that these drug manufacturers have experienced can be attributed to the malleability of disease, the use of influencial people to promote new drugs and the efficient usage of media outlets.
Why do consumers purchase specific drugs for various ailments, sicknesses or diseases they might have? Why do physicians prescribe certain drugs over competitive drugs that may be available to the public? Why is it that most of us can easily name specific drugs that fit the many ailments of today’s society? On the surface the answer might be as simple as good TV advertising or radio commercials or even internet adds. The truth of matter is the major pharmaceutical manufacturers own the patents on these drugs and this gives them all of the marketing budget and muscle they need to promote the drug and control the pricing. The incentives for larger pharmaceutical companies are very enticing and as a result, they don’t mind spending the time in clinical trials and patent courts to get their drugs approved. Some will even get patents on the process by which the drug is manufactured, ensuring that no competitor can steal the drug or the process. This protects their large financial investment and nearly guarantees a large return for their investors. Many consumer rights groups claim this is nothing more than legalizing monopolies for the biggest manufacturers.
Prescription drug prices rose three times faster than inflation in the decade between 1981 and 1991, making the pharmaceutical industry the nation's most profitable business. Prescription drugs even exceeded the rapidly rising inflation rate for all other medical services. They now represent at least 10% of all the medical costs in the United States.1
Print. The. Freudenheim, Milt “Influencing Doctor’s Orders” New York Times. " Off the Charts: Pay, Profits and Spending by Drug Companies." Families USA, July 2001.
The Ethernet has been around for several decades and is a mature data transfer mechanism based on packets and internet protocol (IP). Its main focus has always been the LANs and transfer of data. ATM is a recent technology that many thought would replace Ethernet as the technology of choice. It can transfer data, voice and video at a much higher rate of speed than Ethernet. So why hasn't ATM replaced Ethernet? In a world where everyone wants everything faster and more efficient, ATM should be the hands-down choice for a networking service. However, it's not as simple as that. Reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of each should be very revealing as to who has the upper hand in network technologies.
Before the 1990’s, if people want to listen to music, they just visit a music store and pick up a CD and then put it into a stereo equipment. However, the development of MP3 file format gradually changed the way people listen to music. This format lets everyone download music easily and it can be converted to CD as well. But, there is still a problem: searching MP3 files on the internet is maddening and people seldom can find the music they want. Therefore, the birth of Napster solved this problem, creating a virtual music community in which music fans could use the Web as a “swap meet” for music files. More importantly, Napster is easy to use and it’s free, which expands the range of audience in age. Bandwidth also contributed to Napster’s success. The greater the bandwidth, the faster the file can be transferred. So, Napster really changed the way people listen to music, discover music and interact with music.
The story really begins with Napster and its free software that allowed users to swap music across the Internet for free using peer-to-peer networks. While Shawn Fanning was attending Northeastern University in Boston, he wanted an easier method of finding music than by searching IRC or Lycos. John Fanning of Hull, Massachusetts, who is Shawn's uncle, struck an agreement which gave Shawn 30% control of the company, with the rest going to his uncle. Napster began to build an office and executive team in San Mateo, California, in September of 1999. Napster was the first of the massively popular peer-to-peer file sharing systems, although it was not fully peer-to-peer since it used central servers to maintain lists of connected systems and the files they provideddirectories, effectivelywhile actual transactions were conducted directly between machines. Although there were already media which facilitated the sharing of files across the Internet, such as IRC, Hotline, and USENET, Napster specialized exclusively in music in the form of MP3 files and presented a user-friendly interface. The result was a system whose popularity generated an enormous selection of music to download. Napster became the launching pad for the explosive growth of the MP3 format and the proliferation of unlicensed copyrights.
To sum up, advertising is one of the important ways to help the marketers as well as consumers. It is good for the companies as they can attract more consumers and as a result increase the profit of the company. It also has many benefits for the consumers as they can raise their knowledge and awareness and accordingly improve their lifestyle. Conversely, it may have negative effects on consumer behavior by creating unhealthy behavior such as alcohol consumption and lowering self-confidence through beauty advertisements. According to what has been written above, obviously, advertisements may have both positive and negative effects on consumer behavior.
An ethical hacker is usually employed by an organization who trusts him or her to attempt to penetrate networks and/or computer systems, using the same methods as a hacker, for the purpose of finding and fixing computer security vulnerabilities. Unauthorized hacking (i.e., gaining access to computer systems without prior authorization from the owner) is a crime in most countries, but penetration testing done by request of the owner of the victim system(s) or network(s) is not.