Monday 21 July 2014

the men who made us spend: part two

Following on from last week's episode in this documentary series:
Jay Doubleyou: the men who made us spend
... here we have the second part:


The Men Who Made Us Spend - Episode 2 by UKTVDOCUMENTARIES

BBC Two - The Men Who Made Us Spend

...although do check out the couple of articles in the Guardian:
The Men Who Made Us Spend, or how we sold our soul to consumerism | Television & radio | The Guardian

Dr Daniel Sister: Dracula Therapy and pressing buttons to make us buy
Consumer psychologist Gorkan Ahmetoglu says we are motivated by the fear of losing something; that we feel vulnerable; that there are consequences of not doing something...
Dr Rapaille: anthropologist and psychologist says its about breaking the subconscious:
Hummer ads:

Jonas Sachs: Advertising creates anxiety - then introduces a solution
The "damsel in distress" = the consumer
Stanley Resor: pioneer of modern advertising bought J Walter Thomspon in 1916 and introduced the use of psychology. With his Listerine antiseptic he used ‘whisper copy', or advertising by fear...
The phrase ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride,’ was actually created as part of a 1930′s ad campaign for Listerine mouthwash.
The pharmacist boss Henry Gadstone was not happy that "we can only sell to the sick". In the future he hoped it would be selling to everyone, like Wrigley’s chewing gum...

When Glaxo came to New York, their product Zantac was prescription only.
Vince Parry at Sachi & Sachi suggested the cure 'acid reflux'.
Ranitidine was introduced in 1981 and was the world's biggest-selling prescription drug by 1988.
Sometime in the late '80s, the CEO of the drug company Glaxo-SmithKline realized he had a problem. Glaxo's lead drug at the time was Zantac, which accounted for one-third of the company's bottom line and was also the world's bestselling ulcer medicine. Zantac had to stay the world's bestselling ulcer medicine for another few years while Glaxo scientists searched for replacements because the drug was slated to lose its patent protection in 1997. The problem was, evidence had been accumulating for several years suggesting that ulcers are not caused by an excess of stomach acid, which Zantac was really good at suppressing, but rather by a bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori. "The implication, hopeful for patients," as author Greg Critser puts it, "was also dismal for Glaxo." Scientists from Glaxo and other companies pooh-poohed the bacterial theory, but by the early 1990s, clinical trials had shown that antibiotics could, in fact, effectively clear up ulcers, leaving Glaxo and Zantac in search of a new market.
The company's salvation lay just north of the stomach, with the condition Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, or GERD. GERD occurs when the esophageal sphincter, the ring of muscle at the top of the stomach, allows acid to creep up the esophagus. Basically, GERD is chronic heartburn--heart-burn so bad it can eventually damage the cells lining the esophagus. Zantac was great at treating GERD, too, but there was just one problem: GERD isn't common. Heartburn, on the other hand, is; but, unfortunately for Glaxo, most people considered heartburn nothing more than one of the wages of overindulgence, treatable with an over-the-counter remedy or a little more self-control at the dinner table--not with a prescription drug. What Glaxo needed to do was persuade people that ordinary heartburn was an early-warning sign of GERD.
So, Glaxo and its marketing team set about popularizing GERD and its potentially dire consequences through a marketing technique that is now used routinely by drug makers, and which came to be known as "condition branding," or selling a disease along with a drug. To brand GERD, Glaxo launched a public relations campaign called "Heartburn Across America." The campaign used the graphic of an erupting volcano to illustrate to consumers the severity of GERD. The company also set up the Glaxo Institute for Digestive Health, which funded research as a way to reach out to physicians. It enlisted the help of the American College of Gastroenterology, the professional organization for doctors who specialize in treating diseases of the stomach and gut, a campaign that deliberately and effectively conflated GERD, which is serious, and heartburn, which is not, in the minds of both consumers and doctors.
The rest, as they say, is history. Zantac sales skyrocketed, hitting $2 billion a year at its peak, two-thirds of which was for GERD. Physicians began to view Glaxo as a leader in the field of gastroenterology; consumers started worrying that their heartburn was potentially dangerous. Condition branding was soon being used by other drug makers to sell everything from high-cholesterol medications to Viagra.
To medicalize a condition, you can describe it with medical language, place it in a medical framework, and treat it with medical intervention. This is what happened when heartburn met Zantac. The prescription drug Zantac was originally approved for the treatment of ulcers. But Glaxo had its eyes on the much larger heartburn market. It’s estimated that 10 to 20% of us have an episode of acid reflux at least once a week.
Enter GERD: Gastroesophageal reflux disease. “Heartburn … did not seem to warrant a prescription drug and was perceived to be well managed by over-the-counter remedies. GERD elevated the medical importance of the condition by presenting it as an acutely chronic ‘disorder’ with an underlying physiologic etiology and the potential for serious longer-term consequences if left unresolved.”
Glaxo (now GlaxoKlineSmith) created an Institute for Digestive Heath. The Institute sponsored its own research and equated GERD with more serious gastrointestinal diseases simply by discussing them in the same context. One of the missions of the Institute is to raise public awareness about issues relating to digestive health. GERD accounted for 65% of GlaxoKlineSmith’s annual $2 billion sales of Zantac.

Statins and cholesterol: ‘Lifelong Screening’
Dr Kailash Chan of the BMA fears this is over-diagnosis and over-treatment

Bob Airlick in 1999 was responsible for marketing the statin Lipitor
"Consumers can only remember one thing: ‘know your number’." The US National Committee of Health reduced that cholesterol number: Pfizer had connections to 6/7 of Cttee members...

Today, the UK NHS spends £0.25bn on statins, making them the most prescribed drug.

Henry Gadstone’s vision of selling drugs to everyone was transformed into the mere risk of getting ill - and that meant 'hygene'.

Cusson’s re-branded Carex as an antibacterial soap: 'germ panic': publicity from health scares
But Val Curtis of the UK National Hygene Centre thinks differently: there is no difference between these products and ordinary soap...

The rap star 50 Cent introduced Vitamin Water and worked with Rohan Oza - which raised a lot of questions:

Meanwhile, at the 50+ Show at the NEC in Birmingham...
Nintendo - Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!
Nintendo Brain Change games are their most successful brand - and were introduced by David Yarnton
Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training launches today in the UK, with the DS Lite following on June 23. General manager of Nintendo UK David Yarnton discusses how both products are going to diversify the market.
The Anti-Ageing medical conference at Las Vagas:



The whole industry is worth $250bn, introducing a 'new paradigm of health care' brought by doctors

The human growth hormone Serostim from Ronald Klatz and Bob Goldman:
The US National Institute of Health cautions against it as no therapies have been proven...
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