Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs, 1/7
http://www.encognitive.com
Doctors might not be crazy about the idea, but patients are walking into their offices asking for specific drugs. They have heard about them on TV or read about them in magazines.
Askier travels blissfully down a mountain of ragweed, his skis in perfect position as pollen scatters across a parched mountain landscape. Quick–is this an advertisement for weed killer, a new type of skiing, or an allergy drug?
Unless you’ve stayed away from magazines and TV this year, you probably know this is an ad for Allegra, an allergy drug manufactured by Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. The caption reads: “This allergy season, live with ahhhbandon. Ahhh! Allegra!”
The Allegra print campaign is one of a multitude of highly visible prescription’ drug advertisements aimed directly at the public. Ever since federal regulations changed laws governing the advertising of prescription drugs in the 1980s, such advertising efforts have taken off. Manufacturers spent $137 million on direct-to-consumer drug advertising on television alone in 1996, according to IMS America and Nielsen Media Research. Advertising is also extensive in most major consumer magazines. “They’re spending a ton of money” says Jack Trout, a marketing expert based in Greenwich, Connecticut, and author of The New Positioning: The Latest on the World’s Number 1 Business Strategy. “They’re keeping these magazines afloat.”
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4021/is_n1_v20/ai_20111743
Author: prokopton
Keywords: acid reflux heart disease depression allergies social anxiety asthma viagra high cholesterol bipolar
Added: December 20, 2007
