Misleading Advertisement,
Misleading promotions.
Drug companies aim at selling drugs and making profit out of it. In order to sell they have to convince doctors and people. To do this, the simple method is to advertise. But what they do in advertising is that they give false information, create fear in the minds of people and force them to accept medicines. This often works because neither the doctor nor the government is vigilant about it. Doctors are appeased by giving expensive gifts. This has been happening for a long time. One recent example is the advertisement of Hepatitis B Vaccine.
Misleading advertisements have flooded the market and only deceived the consumer to undergo hepatitis B vaccination. A degree of fear has been instilled in the public mind regarding how important it is for one to get vaccinated or else die of cancer of liver. The companies have been successful in inducing fear among the general public. Some examples of such advertisements;- This advertisement by the leading multinational company SKF (now known as Glaxo Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceuticals) is promoting that hepatitis B kills more people in a day than AIDS in a year. This is totally misleading and unscientific.
Another misleading advertisement by the same company. At the out set it is unethical to show pictures of chubby children for such a advertisement. In fact such pictures capture the imagination of parents and almost give them the feeling that there own children may get effected.