The return of the spoof

doi:10.1136/bmj.39503.716412.0F

BMJ 2008;336:589 (15 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39503.716412.0F

Observations

Medicine and the Media

The return of the spoof

Bob Burton, freelance journalist, South Hobart, Tasmania

bobburton@ozemail.com.au

The spoof drug campaign that became an internet hit is back—asa global education campaign about the marketing strategies ofthe drug industry. Bob Burton reports

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Indolebant—the spoof drug that was originally createdto treat the previously unknown motivational deficiency disorder—isback. What started out as a disturbingly successful April fool’sday prank in the news pages of the BMJ (BMJ 2006;332:745 doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7544.745-a) has been relaunched in a seriesof video clips by Consumers International (www.consumersinternational.org)as part of its "Marketing Overdose" campaign. The campaign aimsto immunise the public against the marketing strategies of thedrug industry.

The international consumer group wants to ban drug industrygifts to doctors, ensure that industry funding of patients’groups is made transparent, and substitute genuinely independenthealth information for direct to consumer advertising and "diseaseawareness" campaigns sponsored by the drug industry. The videos—availableonline (at http://marketingoverdose.org/) and on DVD—arecalled Pharma TV, Pharma Confidential,and Pharma Facts.

Pharma TV is a one minute spoof television story on indolebant(trade name . . . [Full text of this article]

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