Who's running the asylum?
A new car, updated furnishings, the latest clothes of the season, a bottle of prescription meds…
How does that last one fit in there?
It's just an example of all the things you're being sold every time you pick up a magazine or newspaper, or turn on the TV or radio. And you know what? It's effective, which is the only reason businesses shell out the big bucks to showcase their products before you.
In 2006, drug companies forklifted over $4.8 billion to advertise their drug wares, up from a mere $2.6 billion in 2002. They wouldn't be spending this kind of money if they weren't expecting mega-returns on their investment.
And they're getting the returns they're looking for by the simple art of persuasion. When 1,695 adults were recently surveyed about how these ads work with them, almost one-third reported that they'd asked their docs to prescribe a med they'd seen on TV.
Docs are willing to comply, with 82 percent of them giving their patients some form of prescription when asked, whether it was for the specific brand the patient requested or a similar drug. Even that number has gone up—from 75 percent of doctors prescribing based on requests in 2005.
So what's the story here? We don't need all of these drugs, but clever advertising is brainwashing doctor and patient alike into believing we do. The end result is the drug companies keep getting richer, and you continue to get sicker and left to pull at lint in your pocket where your money used to be.
