{"id":8066,"date":"2005-05-23T00:19:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-23T00:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/is-pharmaceutical-marketing-bs\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:28:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:28:37","slug":"is-pharmaceutical-marketing-bs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/is-pharmaceutical-marketing-bs\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Pharmaceutical Marketing BS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After watching a 60 Minutes show that featured a story on a book titled \u201cOn Bullshit,\u201d I just had to go out and get the last copy in my local bookstore, especially since the commentary also noted that marketing is one of the most notorious sources of bullshit.<\/p>\n

The book, which is a 67-page tongue-in-cheek treatise, was written by one Harry G. Frankfurt, a Princeton University professor of philosophy. Frankfurt, who is well-known in academic philosophy circles but probably unknown to you, makes a distinction between liars and bullshitters. <\/p>\n

In which category are marketers? What are some noteworthy examples of pharmaceutical marketing bullshit? How does marketing bullshit hurt the industry?<\/p>\n

The idea that marketing is somewhat less than truthful should not surprise anyone. Some people would even claim that marketers are liars. For example, Seth Godin, author of the book \u201cPermission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers,\u201d which was previously reviewed in Pharma Marketing News<\/i> (see \u201cOut-of-the-Box Marketing: Will It Work for Pharma?\u201d, PMN Reprint #27-02<\/a>), has written a new book titled \u201cAll Marketers are Liars.\u201d The book is scheduled for release on May 23, 2005. According to one reviewer, \u201cthis is a book about doing what consumers demand\u2014painting vivid pictures that they choose to believe.\u201d Sounds like bullshit to me! <\/p>\n

Carefully Wrought Bullshit
\nFrankfurt puts marketing into the category of \u201ccarefully wrought bullshit.\u201d According to him, \u201cthe realms of advertising and of public relations, and the nowadays closely related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated that they can serve among the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept.\u201d<\/p>\n

The important point is that all marketers are NOT liars. All Marketers are Bullshitters! One wonders if Godin\u2019s book will sell more with that title, but I don\u2019t think so. It would lose its shock value because everyone knows that marketers are bullshitters and, what\u2019s more, everyone expects bullshit from marketers. Lying, however, would be shocking and even illegal! The distinction, therefore, between lying and bullshitting is critical from a pharma-ceutical marketer\u2019s point of view, not to mention the FTC and FDA.<\/p>\n

The Essence of Bullshit
\nThe difference between a bullshitter and a liar, claims Frankfurt, is that the bullshitter has a complete disregard for facts. \u201cHis eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says\u2026this indifference to how things really are\u2014that I regard as of the essence of bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

A good example of this is how Merck instructed its sales force to bullshit their way around questions by docs about Vioxx.<\/p>\n

At a recent Congressional committee hearing, confidential Merck documents were released that provide details about how Merck aggressively cast Vioxx in the best possible light before it was pulled from the market because of cardiovascular risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen doctors asked about those risks,\u201d according to a May 6, 2005 AP story, \u201cthe Merck sales reps were to refer to a \u2018cardiovascular card\u2019 with data suggesting that Vioxx could be safer than other anti-inflammatory drugs. Yet the card\u2026 doesn’t include the very study that raised the first warning signal that Vioxx could harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the reps were instructed to paint a picture that perhaps the doctors wanted to believe\u2014i.e., they engaged in some \u201ccarefully wrought bullshit.\u201d The Merck marketers were not lying and their eyes were definitely on the facts, just not the right facts. This, as Frankfurt would say, is the essence of a bullshitter.<\/p>\n

The bullshitter \u201cdoes not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all,\u201d says Frankfurt. \u201cBy virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although bullshit, according to Frankfurt, is produced \u201cwithout concern for the truth, it need not be false. The essence of bullshit is not that it is false but that it is phony.\u201d Got the distinction yet?<\/p>\n

All Brands are Bullshit
\nFrankfurt looks at the motives of a liar and a bullshitter to help delineate one from the other. Whereas the lair is trying to deceive, the bullshitter is not. The bullshitter doesn\u2019t care about the truth. \u201cWhat he cares about,\u201d says Frankfurt, \u201cis what people think of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the brand personifies the marketing message, then the brand is the bullshitter. The marketer strives to build a brand that is trusted by the consumer, that is well thought of, that impresses the consumer. That is what matters. The brand, therefore, is bullshit.<\/p>\n

The Marketer as Bullshit Artist
\nFrankfurt suggests that there are \u201cexquisitely sophisticated craftsmen\u201d\u2014although later on he calls them artists\u2014in the realm of politics and marketing \u201cwho\u2014with the help of advanced and demanding techniques of market research, of public opinion polling, of psychological testing, and so forth\u2014dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they produce exactly right.\u201d Sound like anyone you know?<\/p>\n

Advertisers often reward themselves with prestigious awards for creativity. This is an appropriate accolade for the bullshitter and his or her product, because the creativity upon which bullshit relies, says Frankfurt, \u201cis less analytical and less deliberative than that which is mobilized in lying. It is more expansive and independent, with more spacious opportunities for improvisation, color, and imaginative play.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is frequently how marketers and advertisers describe their product. Just look at the Viagra \u201cdevil Bob\u201d ad that was pulled from the market not too long ago. This is what Kelly Simmons, executive vice president and chief creative officer at Tierney Communications in Philadelphia, who studies sex issues in marketing, had to say: \u201cI like the new tone; I think it\u2019s playful.\u201d (See \u201cThe Two Bobs: Enzyte vs. Viagra<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n

Bullshit is a matter of art and marketers think of themselves more as artists than as craftsmen. In other words, they see themselves as \u201cbullshit artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Is There So Much Bullshit?
\nFrankfurt contends that there probably is no more bullshit today, relatively speaking, than at other times. It\u2019s just that there is more communications of all kinds today.<\/p>\n

The pharmaceutical industry has been guilty of increasing communications to doctors and consumers to such a degree that the bullshit level, like the level of spam in your e-mail inbox, has reached such a height that it cannot be ignored and is no longer tolerated (see FIGURE below). That is why doctors won\u2019t let sales reps into their offices anymore and why lawmakers are proposing bills to limit DTC advertising.<\/p>\n

Pharmaceutical marketing bullshit could be lessened either by cutting back on all forms of marketing communications to doctors and consumers, which would lead to a depression in our industry, or by decreasing the amount of bullshit in those communications. The critics in Congress will force the former solution upon the industry unless pharmaceutical marketers volun-tarily adopt the latter.<\/p>\n

\"BSFIGURE: The relative amount of bullshit in pharmaceutical marketing communications may be the same today as it was 8 to 10 years ago before DTC advertising burst upon the scene and pharmaceutical companies dramatically increased their sales forces. The absolute level of bullshit today, however, far exceeds the tolerance level of docs and their patients.<\/p>\n

MACK\u2019s MARKETING BS MAXIM
\nIf the percentage of bullshit in marketing communications were decreased, pharma marketers could still maintain or even exceed the current level of communications with their audiences and not exceed their BS tolerance levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After watching a 60 Minutes show that featured a story on a book titled \u201cOn Bullshit,\u201d I just had to go out and get the last copy in my local bookstore, especially since the commentary also noted that marketing is one of the most notorious sources of bullshit. 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