Wednesday, 13 May 2009
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The Winner Stands Alone: A Novel
By Paulo Coelho
see relatedRestless Marketing
There is a ploy that drug companies utilize called direct-to-consumer marketing, and its goal seems to be to challenge the intelligence of the average American citizen. Direct-to-consumer marketing involves the use of television commercials for prescription drugs with complex names for conditions that aren’t clearly defined, but the viewer is made to feel as if they’re supposed to know what the heck the commercial is about. This advertising tactic allows pharmaceutical companies to advertise drugs for diseases that they probably made up, such as “restless legs syndrome.” I don’t know what “restless legs syndrome” is, but from the commercials I can infer that it involves shuffling your legs around uncontrollably at nighttime when you’re in bed trying to sleep. Being 31 years old, I can’t help but think that “restless legs syndrome” is grown-up talk for “not sleepy” and Requip (ropinirole HCl) is the new and sexy name for “sleeping pill.” By that same token, I can’t imagine that erectile dysfunction is a legitimate medical entity. If a man has trouble getting an erection, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there is something physiologically ill with him. Common sense would dictate that he just needs a new girlfriend or wife. There is no doubt that Viagra (sildenafil citrate) promotes blood flow to a man’s penis, but so does an attractive 20-year old college coed. Cialis (tadalafil) has been proven through FDA clinical trials to give erections to impotent men, but were trials ever performed to see the effects of putting these same impotent men in a room full of Playboy playmates? Erectile dysfunction can easily be “cured” without medication (as in, sleeping with someone else), but infidelity causes wounds that almost never heal. Erectile dysfunction doesn’t exist, but losing interest in your partner does. Viagra was likely developed to stop husbands from cheating on their wives (and vice versa, I suppose). That doesn’t necessarily make it moral or immoral. It is what it is.
But what the hell do I know? I’m just the average American citizen.
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Comments (7)
Hmm... making money by preying on our weaknesses? Questionable, but sounds like any other typical marketing scheme. When it comes down to someone's well-being/health, though, it's just dirty play. Damn those huge money sponges.
I gotta disagree with you on the "restless leg syndrome" thing though, because I've got it. I'm like one of the 0.0001% of people in the world that has it, and even though none of my classmates and only one of my gtown med profs believed me, it does exist. I think it's a neuro problem, inappropriate synapses in the lumbar-sacral area...
I'm pretty sure a man'll try porn or fucking a hot woman before he'll take an impotency pill. If there's anything I'm sure of, it's men's pride in their penises. There is a place for respecting the medical community and the legitimacy of their work; if you want to make a point that something is illegitimate (such as, historically, cliterodectamies to "fix" lesbianism), do the research on it. Claiming a legitimate medical condition is just someone being a baby can be hugely offensive and hurtful; see the comment above!
That being said, you have a point in saying many things are not what they seem, and the pharmeceutical companies are worthy of being looked into.
i'd like them to do the erection study myself. i'm with you betting a lot of older men whos wives have gotten fat and ugly just need some better stimulation. did i say "better"? gosh no I shouldnt have. i meant "better looking". glad i caught that and changed it before people the likes of quell stabbed me in the penis for insensitivities.
Hmmm. The thing about the drug company's commercials I agree with. That is what is raising the cost of drugs and medical care, and that is why they do it. That is also the reason that the insurance companies are refusing to pay for certain of those drugs. An insurance guy told me about that, and I confirmed it with my doc. People go in and ask for those drugs because they saw the commercial, and those are the most expensive drugs available - even though a cheaper one will work the same. So, the insurance companies say screw this, and won't pay for it.
Now, about 'restless leg syndrome,' claritymay is right. I know someone who has it also, and she kicks me uncontrollably in bed. It is a neuro problem, but I don't know enough about it to say more.
You/we are lucky that you/we don't need anything for sexual functioning........yet! There are multiple reasons that things stop working in that area, and a young sexy hot woman will only further the frustration, not help. Diabetes is the most common reason. Those drugs have helped a lot of diabetic men be a "man" again. Cardiovascular issues can prevent getting hard enough to perform. Those drugs help impotence but not lack of libido. Suppose your body stops producing testosterone for some reason. You then have no interest in sex anymore. That can be treated by hormone replacement therapy, but if the doc has the same feeling that you write about, they will probably not even address the problem in the first place.
God, I can't imagine what I would feel like if someday I realized that no matter how hard I tried, there was no way it was going to happen. I think I would lie there and cry like a baby.
I don't quite get the point of your post. I actually am in advertising, and I have done direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.
You are completely right. We barely mention the names of the diseases, or we barely mention the name of our product. That's not clever advertising by any means. It's actually rather poor marketing. The reason you don't quite understand the commercial has everything to do FDA regulations. The keys to marketing are as follows: AIDA - capture Attention, inspire Interest, drive Demand, push Acquisition. It's hard to cause patients to demand a drug or look to acquire a drug when you don't really mention the name of the product, and it's hard to capture attention or inspire interest when you don't tell the viewer what the hell the commercial is for.
Big Pharma is not your problem with modern day medicine. Have you ever wondered how much it costs to pay ALL the employees of a health care insurance firm, and allow them to generate profit for their shareholders? Have you ever thought about how many uninsured individuals (whose health care cost is essentially distributed to all of us) there are? What about the massive lottery-like payouts in malpractice suits?
It's fun to have a single target to blame, but it isn't that simple. Advertising is simply a function of the modern capitalist society. Big Pharma is necessary to develop new medicines. There are no big demons or evils. This is simply the world we live in.
Come up with a better structure for human society, and you'd probably go down as the single greatest human being of all time. Then again, the reward should tell you enough of how impossible that feat is.
Wow, I was going to add my 2 cents but all of these comments are intensely well-informed and worth way more than my 2 cents. :)
i'm confused because i know that you know that erectile dysfunction is real because of our old VA patients!