Wednesday, June 29, 2005

 

"Just Say No" To Drugs? Not When $8 Billion Says Otherwise

I've always found it rather ironic that as a society, and especially as a federal government, we preach a message of "Just Say No" to drugs, but as members of that societ, we take more drugs than at any other time in human history.

You know why? Because drug companies spent more than $8 BILLION dollars last year promoting them through advertising and commercials. Advertising Age (registration might be required) recently release 2004 statistics listing the nation's top industries and companies, in terms of how much they spent on advertising.

Of the $135 BILLION spent in 2004 on advertising, $8.1 billion was spent promoting medicines and remedies, ranking that industry fourth behind cars, retailer stores and telecom/Internet companies. Five of the top 25 companies on the list of who-spent-what on advertising were drug/pharmaceutical firms: Pfizer (4th), Johnson & Johnson (10th), GlaxoSmithKline (11th), Novartis (21st) and Merck (25th). Also making it into the top 100 were Schering-Plough (39th), Wyeth (42nd), Bristol-Myers Squibb (47th), AstraZeneca (51st), Sanofi-Aventis (54th), Eli Lilly (62nd) and Bayer (81st).

Ever wonder by non-drug remedies like The Rossiter System have a hard time competing?

That said, I'm still gloating about the fact that during a recent national convention for athletic trainers, two people from the Tylenol sponsorship booth came to MY booth for shoulder pain relief.

Take that!

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