This report considers the current state of pharmaceutical marketing vis-à-vis ethical and legal standards and advocates measures to improve it. There is abundant evidence of unethical or illicit marketing. It fuels growing concerns about undue corporate influence over pharmaceutical research, education, and consumption.
Cigarette packs are being stripped of advertising around the world. But not in the US.
Cigarette packs have long served as portable advertising for tobacco companies, with smokers conveniently disseminating branding and imagery wherever they go, writes Vox Science and Health. Packaging has also long been a central target for health advocates in the global effort to get more people off deadly tobacco products. Last week, the World Health Organization called on countries everywhere to step up the war on tobacco advertising and promotion by introducing plain, or standardized, packaging of tobacco products. Notably, the United States isn’t even close to getting plain packaging on cigarettes anytime soon.
Kalashnikov, Maker of AK-47, Looks to Rebrand
As part its broad new marketing effort, the Russian gun maker Kalashnikov now sends representatives to gun stores across Russia to promote its products, reports the New York Times. At a gun shop in Moscow’s suburbs, Kalashnikov has provided two window displays exclusively for its rifles, and racks and shelves to sell branded T-shirts and shoulder patches. “The idea is to surround the customer with the brand, so he is not tempted to spend money anywhere else,” said a company spokesman. “It’s a very modern approach. Some people want black plastic, some people want beechwood, some people want walnut…No two comrades have the same taste.”
Corporations and Health Watch 