Advertising in Medical Journals: Should Current Practices Change?
▻https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030130
▻https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/figure/image?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030130.t002&size=inline
By accepting only advertisements for drugs and medical devices, medical journals have accepted an exclusive and dependent relationship with corporations. Perhaps the distance between the prescribing physician and the purchase of the advertised product contributes to the perception that drug advertisements in journals are somehow more professional than advertisements for goods hawked directly to the consumer. However, all advertising campaigns are designed to create positive feelings about a brand, to saturate a targeted population’s environment with a brand name, and to sell the product.