Marketing

Smoking in "Avatar": Necessary to "Reflect Reality"?

by Anne Landman — January 4, 2010 - 4:26pm

James Cameron's new blockbuster movie Avatar won a "black lung" rating for gratuitous smoking from the Web site Scenesmoking.org, which rates motion pictures according to the amount of smoking they show. Avatar is a futuristic fantasy that takes place sometime in the 22nd century. In it, Sigourney Weaver plays an environmental scientist who puffs on cigarettes as she tries to save the moon Pandora.

Main Source: 
New York Times, January 3, 2010

Marketing to Fear: Cocoa Krispies Boost Your Kids' Immunity?

by Anne Landman — November 3, 2009 - 2:39pm

In the middle of the H1N1 influenza epidemic, Kellogg is marketing Cocoa Krispies, Froot Loops and other sugary cereals with claims on the box that the cereal "now helps support your child's immunity." The word "immunity" is printed on the box in a huge font, almost as big as the name of the cereal.

Main Source: 
USA Today, November 2, 2009

Exploiting the Exploiters' Hoax

by Anne Landman — October 21, 2009 - 3:28pm

Wasting no time, video game startup Heyzap.com in San Francisco has created a video game based on Colorado's "Balloon Boy" hoax that is circulating on the Web and through Twitter. In it, a young Falcon Heene clings to a tinfoil muffin-like balloon while flying through the air trying to shoot down things that get in his way, like UFOs, rainbows and birds.

Main Source: 
New York Daily News, October 20, 2009

Tobacco Makers Exploit Fruit Loopholes in FDA Law

by Anne Landman — September 10, 2009 - 1:08pm

Cigarette makers have come up with a way to get around the new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rule banning flavored cigarettes.

Main Source: 
TheTV33.com, September 9, 2009

Merck Wants Profit Boosters for Gardasil

by Diane Farsetta — August 12, 2009 - 11:29am

"Faced with declining sales for Gardasil, the controversial -- and so far only -- vaccine for prevention of human papillomavirus, Merck & Co. is planning to boost the drug's visibility during the key back-to-school shopping period beginning this month," reports Advertising Age.

Main Source: 
Advertising Age, August 10, 2009

Increasing Scrutiny for Online Marketing

by Diane Farsetta — August 12, 2009 - 11:01am

The National Advertising Review Council (NARC), a "coalition of advertising organizations" that recommends standards for industry self-regulation, issued its first rulings dealing with blog promotions. NARC faulted two companies for "posting 'reviews' of dietary supplements, but not disclosing that they actually own the products," or that the reviewers were paid.

Main Source: 
PC Magazine, August 11, 2009

Ghosts Selling Drugs

by Sheldon Rampton — August 5, 2009 - 12:42pm

"Newly unveiled court documents show that ghostwriters paid by a pharmaceutical company played a major role in producing 26 scientific papers backing the use of hormone replacement therapy in women," reports Natasha Singer. "The articles, published in medical journals between 1998 and 2005, emphasized the benefits and de-emphasized the risks" of Premarin and Prempro, two homone drugs produced by the Wyeth pharmaceutical company.

Main Source: 
New York Times, August 4, 2009

An Inescapable Web of Advertisements

by Diane Farsetta — July 15, 2009 - 1:34pm

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) "may soon require online media to comply with disclosure rules under its truth-in-advertising guidelines." FTC assistant director Richard Cleland said, "Consumers have a right to know when they're being pitched a product." But the "hypercommercialism of the Web" may be "changing too quickly for consumers and regulators to keep up," reports the New York Times.

Main Source: 
New York Times, July 12, 2009
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