A little something fun from Kane (that's kah-nay, "man" in Hawaiian) at KaneBlues:

  I Am

Which tarot card are you?

"Spiritual enlightenment, inner illumination, hidden power. Link between seen and unseen. Balance of positive and negative forces. Receptivity. Unseen guidance.
A young woman sits on a throne holding a scroll labeled "Tora" meaning "law." On her breast is the sign of the meeting of heaven and earth, the Maltese cross. Her crown is the full orb supported by horns, the crown ofthe Mother Goddess Isis, who rules all things changeable, shown by the moon at her feet. Her power, upon which her throne rests, derives from the creative principle of duality, shown by the two pillars of light and darkness. To those who know and love her she dispenses the sweet fruit of the world itself, symbolized by the pomegranites." 

Yeah, hidden power my eye.  Ask Raven - I'm a "force of nature"! <laughing>

What about you?

5:00:36 PM    comment []

WARNING:  Rather slowish blogging, kind of, maybe, a bit slow...

Well, I do want to let you know I've been tied up with writing a paper for a marketing class I'm taking.  I don't have a heckuva lot of time for a good blog post.  But I'll share something I wrote for my paper -- it's a marketing rant about which I've been meaning to send something to my governmental representatives because I feel intensely about this topic...

Let me know if you agree or disagree, would be interesting (although not helpful for the purposes of this paper since it's due today!).  BTW, this isn't the final draft, I'm in the middle of revisions right now.

- - -

"… there is one product on the market for which I am disgusted with the marketing mix.  Nexium (brand name for the drug esomeprazole magnesium) is a proton pump inhibitor manufactured by AstraZeneca LP, prescribed for severe gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD); it acts to turn off stomach acid production and is used when other treatments have failed.  Initial treatments for GERD include dietary changes (elimination of fatty foods, mints, chocolate, alcohol, coffee, and tea, nicotine from cigarettes or chewing tobacco), lifestyle changes (eating more than two hours before bed, not lying down after eating, stress management and exercise), use of antacids (over-the-counter preparations like Tums) and H₂-blockers (drugs like Tagamet, Pepcid, Axid, and Zantac which may be available in over-the-counter and prescription formulations).  There are competitors in the same space which are also proton pump blockers: Prilosec, Prevacid, Aciphex, and Protonix.  Surgery is the last alternative available to GERD patients, assuming that the underlying problem can be treated with surgery.

My problem with this particular drug’s marketing is that Nexium's use should be rare, given the number of other initial treatments patients should implement prior to beginning use of any proton pump blockers.  Consequently, marketing should be highly targeted, reaching only those persons identified as patients already suffering from GERD for whom all other treatments short of surgery have failed.  Any marketing outside of this target group is wasteful, adding to the drug’s cost.

Nexium’s manufacturer has elected to use mass marketing to promote this particular product.  Advertising appears in all sorts of magazines which are sold to adults, from household magazines to sports magazines.  In addition to print ads, television ads are used to promote “the purple pill”.  The ads show a variety of adults standing around on shifting ground, stepping to safety upon the appearance of purple pills.  The ads are typically placed during programs of broad appeal to a wide-ranging audience.  During initial introduction of this drug, not an evening would go by without seeing at least one advertisement for Nexium.  Frequently there would be more than one ad.

Unfortunately, my children and I watch these same programs.  The ads were inescapable; if the ad would appear on one station, I would quickly change the channel, only to find the ad on another major station at the same time.  My children were beginning to ask me about “the purple pill” every time they saw it on television; I had to explain to my four-year-old every time the ad appeared on TV that this “purple pill” was not necessary, that nearly every adult he knew would not need this drug and that it was not for use by kids.  He does not yet grasp the concept that advertising is intended to get people to give up money to a producer in exchange for a product, necessary or not.

I began to worry that this was not a true statement since the ads had become so ubiquitous; I asked my primary care physician, a family practitioner, if this drug was as commonly prescribed as the quantity of advertising led one to believe.  He told me that he did not prescribe it for GERD, choosing instead to prescribe a far less expensive competitor, and that assured me the percentage of the population requiring this drug was rather low.  He also told me he shies away from prescribing drugs which use this kind of excessive promotion since they are generally far more expensive and no more effective than generics or other competitors in the same space (when chemically similar or identical).

I feel that while this product may be effective for its intended use, its maker, AstraZeneca, has failed the public trust with its mass marketing of Nexium.  This product is not the kind of thing of which children should be conscious; excessive use of television ads has elevated this “purple pill” to a level of everyday commonality in the minds of persons who’ll never legitimately have a need for this product.  Additionally, the entire concept of excessively promoting a “purple pill” makes it appear to children that drugs are a normal, commonplace item in our lives.  This maybe the agenda of drug companies, but it is not right.  Health is that which should pursue without drugs wherever and whenever possible; adults should not expect that drug use is a preferred and normal consequence.  Further, normalization of drug use in the minds of children is a slippery slope leading towards inappropriate or illegal drug use.  In my opinion, AstraZeneca has acted unethically in its mass marketing promotion of Nexium."

11:31:47 AM    comment []