Flim-flam in the 21st Century
Posted in Money Matters, Technology, campaign, News Media, disclosure, ethics, United States, Advertising, Public, Business, Big Pharma, Ralph Nader on March 1st, 2007 by Stanford Matthews
What’s wrong with marketing from the consumer prospective? The item below suggests that either marketing folks don’t get it or they do and it just doesn’t matter. When is the last time you observed an advertisement that actually provided enough fact or other information about a product or service that provoked the logical part of your mind to investigate the claims further? Or how often do you see an ad that discusses the offering in a practical fashion? Advertisers will tell you they can’t sell like that. It is because they have been doing the snake oil routine for so long the audience expects razzle dazzle and serious fact-driven proposals don’t sell product. So don’t tell us you need multiple outlets for your ad campaign. A valuable product will sell itself on its merits if there is a market for it. The long standing practices of the advertising industry are akin to those of politics. All slight of hand misrepresentations that sell enough to unsuspecting targets to furnish a profit.
BOSTON (BusinessWire EON) March 1, 2007 — Eighty-one percent of consumers in the recent Schneider/Stagnito/IRI Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey were unable to name a single one of the Top 50 products launched in 2006. Clearly, marketers need a new strategy for gaining consumer attention for their new wares
Wal-Mart and three other major U.S. employers are teaming up with union leaders in setting a goal of providing “quality, affordable” health care for millions of workers by 2012.
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said he would raise taxes on some Americans to help ensure quality health care coverage for all by 2012.
WASHINGTON—The newly appointed members of the State Alliance for e-Health today formally launched a state-led, collaborative effort to improve health care through electronic health record sharing. Co-chaired by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, the State Alliance brings together governors, attorneys general, state legislators, insurance commissioners and other experts to address state-level health information technology (HIT) issues and challenges to enabling appropriate, interoperable, electronic health information exchange (HIE).
Yes, better record processing is the solution to health care delivery. Let’s not get too concerned about health care costs or medical errors or uninsured citizens. Oh that’s right. Medical errors will be solved with better record keeping. Lucky we live in the digital age. How did people ever cope with medical errors before digital record keeping? Don’t worry about Big Pharma and the unholy alliance with the FDA. Don’t concentrate on good old fashioned common sense in solving problems. Let’s work on electronic health record sharing. Data is never compromised in the digital world. No one ever hacks in to electonic records storage. No business would ever misuse their access to the personal records of millions of Americans.
It was reported that Dingell’s Committee would study Big Pharma’s direct to consumer advertising and possibly apply some new restrictions to the practice. And tonight on NBC News, they ran a story about RLS, the recently developed ailment needing a drug. One of the people in the report said this is one time they believe the direct to consumer approach provided a service to consumers. The overall tone of the piece was unmistakenly pro Big Pharma.
Eli Lilly, the American pharmaceutical giant that has consistently denied any link between Zyprexa, its anti psychotic drug, and diabetes, was concerned about the side-effects of the drug as early as 1998, according to documents seen by The Times.