Reuters: Fake Drug, Fake Illness & People believe it!

[Guest guest]

If that does not make you think about how easily we accept what we

are told without critical thinking...

Best Wishes,

Misty L. Trepke

http://health.

 

 

Reuters: Fake Drug, Fake Illness & People believe it!

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSL165119520070216?

& src=021607_1724_ARTICLE_PROMO_also_on_reuters & pageNumber=1

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A media exhibit featuring a campaign for a fake

drug to treat a fictitious illness is causing a stir because some

people think the illness is real.

 

Australian artist Justine Cooper created the marketing campaign for

a non-existent drug called Havidol for Dysphoric Social Attention

Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder (DSACDAD), which she also

invented.

 

But the multi-media exhibit at the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in New

York, which includes a Web site, mock television and print

advertisements and billboards is so convincing people think it is

authentic.

 

" They didn't get the fact that this was a parody or satire. "

But Mahmood said it really took off over the Internet. In the first

few days after the Web site (www.havidol.com) went up, it had 5,000

hits. The last time he checked it had reached a quarter of a million.

" The thing that amazes me is that it has been folded into real Web

sites for panic and anxiety disorder. It's been folded into a Web

site for depression. It's been folded into hundreds of art blogs, "

he added.

 

The parody is in response to the tactics used by the drug industry

to sell their wares to the public. Consumer advertising for

prescription medications, which are a staple of television

advertising in the United States, was legalized in the country in

1997.

 

Cooper said she intended the exhibit to be subtle.

" The drug ads themselves are sometimes so comedic. I couldn't be

outrageously spoofy so I really wanted it to be a more subtle kind

of parody that draws you in, makes you want this thing and then

makes you wonder why you want it and maybe where you can get it, "

she added.

 

Mahmood said that in addition to generating interest among the artsy

crowd, doctors and medical students have been asking about the

exhibit.

 

" I think people identify with the condition, " he said.

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

" doctors and medical students have been asking about

the exhibit. "

 

Doesn't this kind of tell us how our doctors and

medical students are trained?

 

I've read that Big Pharma funds the medical schools

and the medical training only teaches how to write

prescriptions and do surgery. Maybe an hour of

nutrition if they are lucky.

 

Leon