Last May I wrote about an outrageous incident I experienced watching pharmaceutical marketing executives lying to their own employees.
Today, Advertising Age reports that Merck and Schering-Plough spent $100 million advertising the cholesterol drug Vytorin for a year, despite having findings that showed the drug didn’t deliver the results promised in the ad. That’s right one whole year of lying to consumers.
Maybe it’s time to end the direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.
I understand your sentiment, Lois. But this would not stop liars from being liars. These same companies would still be telling the same false story to docs through their reps. If you stop the liars, you also have to stop the truth-tellers. Then there would be no public discourse
It also puts you on the slippery slope to looking at other industries for liars. Then every industry would be suspect.
My solution is to punish the liars with significant jail time.
Jay,
You’re so right. Liars need to be exposed and held accountable — in any industry. Thanks for your reply.
Lois