Comments on: Paying celebrities to shill your drugs

By: BOB FIDDAMAN

BOB FIDDAMAN — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 11:26:58 +0000

2016 update.

Ex-NFL player Ricky Williams (Paxil) goes public with figure paid to him by GlaxoSmithKline.

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By: Truthman

Truthman — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 15:35:01 +0000

Very interesting, see my blog on Paxil for more info about how GSK unethically marketed it

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By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 21:46:00 +0000

I agree, Donnie-Ann. But that 1930 ad likely featured an illustration of a man acting as a doctor for advertising purposes. The cringe-factor is really off the charts, however, for the real-life docs who take advantage of those trustworthy letters M.D. after their names in a deliberate plan to make money pushing products.

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By: Donnie-Ann

Donnie-Ann — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 23:59:01 +0000

For generations, we’ve seen opera singers, sports icons, clergymen and politicians, even Santa Claus himself, perfectly willing to take money as corporate pitchmen. The most disgusting are the ads using medical doctors pitching cigarettes, like the vintage 1930 ad in which a smiling white-coated doc smiles at the pack of Lucky Strikes in his hand, just below the caption that screams “20,678 Physicians Say Luckies Are Less Irritating!” Doctors are no different than any other celeb who sees nothing wrong with taking money from corporate marketers. Oh except for the unethical and immoral part.

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By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 03:52:00 +0000

Apparently, based on the popularity of paid celebrity endorsements, all kinds of idiots must be buying products that are endorsed by celebs!

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By: Haley

Haley — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:36:20 +0000

Don’t people realize that these celebrities are being PAID BIG BUCKS to say what they’re saying? A total sell-out, literally and metaphorically. What kind of idiots would buy a product merely because their favorite celeb gets their picture taken smiling about it?

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By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:50:24 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Suzan. But that’s the point – celebrities don’t even have to “directly” endorse a specific therapy to make this kind of industry-funded awareness campaign suspect. As I said earlier, Big Pharma would not be funding this campaign in the first place unless it worked to move product. Another recent example of this is the Bayer/Joy Behar “I Am ProHeart” partnership, at first blush just a women’s heart disease “awareness” campaign. Joy doesn’t have to even mention the word ‘aspirin’ to fix the funder’s product clearly in the consciousness of the public.

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By: Suzan Oberle, Ph.D.

Suzan Oberle, Ph.D. — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:20:25 +0000

I’ve seen a number of interviews where Barry Manilow has talked about atrial fibrillation (Afib) and the “Get Back in Rhythm” campaign, but he has never advocated, or even mentioned, Multaq, nor any other specific drug.

Instead, he talks about how his own condition was treated with multiple surgical ablation procedures (because the pharmaceutical approach did NOT work for him!). He emphasizes the dangers of leaving Afib untreated, and encourages people to see their doctors if they exhibit typical symptoms of Afib, which can be easy to ignore.

I agree Multaq can have serious side effects and may not be effective, and I’m certain that Sanofi Aventis isn’t promoting this awareness campaign completely out of altruism. However, Barry Manilow has never endorsed any particular treatment or drug in any part of the Get Back in Rhythm campaign, at least not directly.

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By: DrJoe Kosterich

DrJoe Kosterich — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:34:38 +0000

Looks like more “bad news” for Barry and Sanofi – Higher rates of stroke, heart failure and deaths.

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By: Carolyn Thomas

Carolyn Thomas — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:10:45 +0000

Hi Ron – I’m not so sure that celebrities-for-hire actually get that involved in the bottom line purpose of these campaigns. There has been a ton of press about Manilow’s PR campaign so far, virtually all of it gushingly positive, including from an Afib patient support site in the U.K. When I left a comment there re concerns about Sanofi’s Multaq, the editor of the site contacted me to let me know that he would NOT be approving my comment for publication “just because things are very different over here.”

Really? How different can things be for AFib patients in the U.K? Multaq is good for Brits, but not good for North Americans?

Way to go, Barry!!

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By: Ron Walters

Ron Walters — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:51:00 +0000

sad part is.. Manilow knows that millions of people will take this drug simply because of this “awareness” campaign.

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