It seems the gym industry is efficient at signing up new members, but far less vigilant in explaining the price, contract and cancellation terms. We sent two ’shadow shoppers’ out separately to visit nine Sydney gyms. The findings: beware high pressure sales tactics and creative pricing. And don’t expect too much by way of information [...]
Read More..>>Whew. If you want to attract spam, just write about money and pharmaceuticals! CHOICE Voice has been receiving hundreds of spam comments, mostly about buying cheap prescription drugs or loan offers (although the ubiquitous explicit content sites are right up there also). You’re not seeing them on the site because we have a filter behind [...]
Read More..>>An excerpt from Big Bucks Big Pharma, a documentary directed by Ronit Ridberg that was screened at the CI World Congress. A fascinating look at the marketing of drugs, both directly to consumers and to the medical industry, and the enormous influence it can have.
This statement, from former Merck sale rep Gene Carbona, provides [...]
Want to read up on CI events in the news? Pharmaceutical marketing was the big topic of the day. Check out the following links to today’s headlines around the world:
Name and shame ‘bribed’ doctors – Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Drug firms try to bribe doctors with cars – Guardian Unlimited, UK
Drug companies attacked over gifts for [...]
You can view speaker presentations, video interviews with delegates and speakers and congress photos online at the following places. We will be uploading speaker papers where there was no presentation as soon as we can get copies. We hope to upload audio files of all sessions in the near future. In the next few days [...]
Read More..>>Everytime we receive a drug prescription from our doctors, we trust that they have our best interest at heart. But how would we feel if we realise they have been showered with gifts by the companies that are selling the drugs to us?
One Indian doctor told Consumers International the following:
“On [...]
Richard Lloyd raised the question of where to hold the next CI World Congress.
We’ve got reports on some of Monday’s fringe events. Georgina has given us the first of two accounts of the day-long campaigning event on advocacy for consumers’ intellectual property rights and Candice has given her impressions of the food marketing fringe event. [...]
Prescription medicines have helped many people lead a healthier life, however the marketing of these drugs is often mired in controversy. Drug companies stand accused of threatening public health and pushing up the price of health care through their aggressive marketing techniques. Only last year Consumers International released a report revealing that 20 of [...]
Read More..>>A highlight of the Congress will be New York based artist Justine Cooper’s fictional marketing campaign for her magic-bullet lifestyle drug HAVIDOL which treats Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder.
Cooper’s work – which will be displayed at Congress – is designed to call to task the unethical marketing and advertising tactics of the [...]
Comments(0) Holding Corporations to Account is the theme of the 18th Consumers International World Congress, co-hosted by CHOICE, which will be held over three days in Sydney from 29 October to 1 November 2007.Consumers International (CI) is the global federation of consumer groups dedicated to the protection and promotion of consumers’ rights worldwide. It currently represents [...]
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CHOICE reports