Product Placement Picking Up Steam
Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on
Product placement in movies and on television is expected to triple by the end of the decade according to a report issued by PQ Media.
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International
Drug Company's Hearing Too Sensitive For Criticism
One of the marketing success stories in the world of herbal pills is the hype and advertising that has made Tebonin one of the big-time sellers. If you believe the ads, popping a Tebonin pill a day will relieve tinnitus (the ringing sound some people have in their ears), dizziness and even improve mental alertness. The promoters claim the drug, which is based on a patented extract from the ginkgo biloba tree, improves "impaired micro-circulation," reduces "free radicals" and "promotes optimum cell function."
According to the German manufacturer, Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH & Co KG, eight million pills are consumed every day. Schwabe, like so many companies in the herbal supplements sector, trades on its feel-good image. "From Nature, For Health," its website claims. That's the story the company wants you to hear. However, when a small group of Australian doctors and pharmacists, AusPharm Consumer Health Watch, drafted a report raising doubts about the benefits of Tebonin, they discovered a company that was not so warm and fuzzy. Soon after sending a copy of their draft report to the company, they were hit with a writ seeking an injunction that may bury their critical assessment forever.
In Iraq, Reporters Quote the GIs That Embed Them
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
When considering the practice of embedding journalists with U.S.
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Spinning an Iraq Oil Kickbacks Confession
Submitted by Bob Burton on
Faced with a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the payment of approximately $A300 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government, in breach of the United Nations' Iraq Oil-for-Food Program, the Australian wheat trader AWB Limited hired
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Restless Drug Promotion
Submitted by Bob Burton on
GlaxoSmithKline breached the British drug industry's own self-regulatory code of conduct by promoting ropinirole to treat restless legs syndrome before the drug had been approved for that use.
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U.S. Spreads Its Diplomacy Around
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"To make up for the diplomatic damage done by the Iraq war and to try and leave the U.S. better positioned to respond to -- and possibly even pre-empt -- conflagrations of the future," the Bush administration is trying to make foreign-service officers "more agile and less hemmed in by the high walls and bureaucracies of the traditional embassy." Currently, "a fifth of all U.S.
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Making Cuba Libre, for Public Relations
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
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Making Radioactive Weather
Submitted by Bob Burton on
Source: Australian Conservation Foundation
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Patient Lobbying
Submitted by Bob Burton on
Drug company funding for the Mental Health Council of Australia to run lobbying and disease awareness campaigns, The Age reports, raises "questions about whether the agendas of a consumer group and that of a multinational drug company are the same." Some of the companies that have funded the council include Pfizer, Janssen-Cilag, Eli Li
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Climate Change Website Taken Off, Eh?
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The conservative administration "is trying to push global climate change off the federal map, shutting down the main federal website on the topic and removing mention of it from speeches and postings" -- in Canada.
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