women

According to internal documents, the pharmaceutical company Wyeth "paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its female hormone replacement therapy Prempro." As early as 1997, Wyeth paid the "medical writing firm" DesignWrite to publish favorable journal articles about Prempro under academics' names. "Company executives came up with ideas" for the articles, "titled them, drafted outlines, paid writers to draft the manuscripts, recruited academic authors and identified publications to run the articles -- all without disclosing the companies' roles to journal editors or readers." Wyeth previously claimed that authors had "played significant roles" in journal articles. The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology published one ghostwritten article in May 2003, a year after Wyeth's Prempro was linked to breast cancer (which recent findings confirmed). The ghostwritten article, published under the name of Australian professor John Eden, claimed there was "no definitive evidence" linking hormone therapy to cancer. Just before the federal study linking Prempro to cancer was published, a Wyeth executive asked DesignWrite "to increase the number of positive journal articles" on Premarin, another Wyeth hormone replacement drug.

It's never good to get your target demographic really mad at you. Johnson & Johnson managed to do exactly that with a recent on-line commercial for its Motrin pain reliever. In the ad, a "mom" talks about how much carrying her baby around is hurting her neck, shoulders and back. It starts with "Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion. I mean in theory, it's a great idea ... " But then the voice over says she cries more than moms that don't carry their baby around "hands free." It's worth it though, because when people see her with her little bundle of pain, she says,"it totally makes me look like an official mom." The reaction from parenting groups was quick, and the ad was pulled just days after launch. Because of long lead times for print publications, however, it will be around to haunt Motrin for a while.

Virginia Slims new, pink "purse pack"Philip Morris (PM) hopes to make cigarettes even more appealing to women by introducing a new, pink "purse pack" of its Virginia Slims brand in the first quarter of 2009. The sleek, rectangular packs will have square ends and be designed to hold the smaller-diameter, "light" and "ultra light" cigarettes the company traditionally targets toward female smokers. PM announced the introduction of its pink Virginia Slims during October, which, ironically, is also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Medical Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids are all protesting the pink pack, saying its rollout demonstrates that PM "is not the changed, responsible company it claims to be," and that it "shows contempt for women and their health by putting a pink gloss on a product that causes lung cancer and heart disease, two of the leading killers of women."

With the start of the school year, debate has heated up again about Gardasil, Merck's vaccine against human papillomavirus. Since writing my series of four articles on The Politics and PR of Cervical Cancer last year, I have continued to track the developments and have noticed some interesting trends. While Gardasil has not been the financial jackpot that Merck was hoping it would be, there is still a steady push for vaccination and even still for mandates. Even though it has not played out as positively as Merck planned, it is too early to turn our attention away from their efforts to sell their so-called "vaccine against cancer." Merck's obvious corporate steamrolling has generated a public backlash and has also faced general concerns about possible health risks from vaccinations, along with conservative opposition to the idea of government health mandates. These reactions slowed the company's money train but didn't bring it to a full stop.

Better to use formula than risk preventing your next pregnancy by breastfeedingWilliam Saletan wrote a tongue-in-cheek letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. In it, he commends HHS's proposal to allow pharmacists and other health workers to refuse to "facilitate any abortifacient chemical or activity." Saletan writes, "I commend the language of the draft, which would define abortion as 'any of the various procedures -- including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action -- that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.'" But he suggests that the proposal doesn't go far enough. Why not add breastfeeding, which "like oral contraception ... alters a woman's hormonal balance, thereby suppressing ovulation, fertilization, and, theoretically, implantation." He adds, "As research uncovers additional causes of miscarriage or preimplantation embryo loss, I look forward to further legislation against caffeine consumption, exercise, and other abortifacient activities among premenopausal women."

Ads from groups weighing in on the U.S. presidential campaign "have begun getting sharper and more numerous," reports NPR's "All Things Considered." The conservative pro-war group Vets for Freedom has already spent $1.5 million on ads in such "key presidential states" as Michigan, Ohio, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia, with plans to "spend exponentially more." Their ads show military veterans supporting Senator John McCain's stance on Iraq, claiming, "The surge worked." Ads from the AFL-CIO labor union also feature veterans, who express respect for McCain's war record while questioning his plan "to keep spending $10 billion a month in Iraq." Religious groups are also getting into the act. The Chicago-based political action committee Matthew 25 Network is supporting Senator Barack Obama with ads on Christian radio stations, which tend to draw conservative listeners. On the other side, the Christian Defense Council is distributing a poster that calls Obama the "abortion president."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Merck's human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil for the U.S. market in June 2006. As CMD previously reported at length, Merck launched an aggressive PR and advertising campaign to support Gardasil, even before the FDA approval, aware that GlaxoSmithKline had a competing vaccine in the wings. But GSK's Cervarix vaccine has hit snags in the U.S. In December, GSK was told that the FDA would not approve the application without further information. While recent guesses put a Cervarix entry into the U.S. market in 2009, The Financial Times is now reporting that "GSK said it had decided to await completion of a pivotal clinical trial to be filed with the US regulator during the first half of next year." This will push FDA approval well into 2010. Cervarix has been approved for sale in 67 countries and the BBC recently reported that the U.K. has chosen Cervarix over Gardasil for its HPV vaccination program.

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at the nuclear industry's largesse, Merck's marketing and cigarettes for kids. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," how is secondhand smoke like an uncurbed dog? The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

The Corn Refiners Association launched an 18-month, $20 to $30 million public relations and advertising campaign "to convince consumers that HFCS [high-fructose corn syrup] isn't the evil it has been made out to be." The industry group is running ads in major newspapers -- under the banner "time for a little food for thought" -- that say HFCS has the "same natural sweeteners as table sugar and honey." The campaign, which was created by the Omnicom Group firm DDB, also includes television and online ads and "phone and in-person conversations with influential mommy bloggers." The Corn Refiners Association "has been trying to counter the bad publicity around HFCS since 2004," but concluded it "could no longer afford to rely on simple grass-roots marketing tactics such as talking with nutritionists and doctors." Major food and beverage producers, such as Kraft, are now promoting products as HFCS-free. The American Medical Association recently concluded that HFCS "doesn't appear to contribute more to obesity than other caloric sweeteners," but called for "further independent research."

You've heard the term "greenwashing." It refers to corporations that try to appear "green" without reducing their negative impact on the environment.

Since 2002, the group Breast Cancer Action has promoted its "Think Before You Pink" campaign. It's fighting "pinkwashing," which is when corporations try to boost sales by associating their products with the fight against breast cancer. Pinkwashing is a form of slacktivism -- a campaign that makes people feel like they're helping solve a problem, while they're actually doing more to boost corporate profits. Pinkwashing has been around for a while, but is now reaching almost unbelievable levels.