[mobglob-discuss] Fwd: NEWS: How the drug industry used Hollywood to push drugs

Sat Jun 8 19:35:24 PDT 2002

------------forwarded message------------
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 16:40:07 -0700
To: "Your Mind & Human Rights" <sci at efn.org>
From: David Oaks - Support Coalition International/MindFreedom
  <oaks at mindfreedom.org>
Subject: NEWS: How the drug industry used Hollywood to push drugs

NEWS: Your Mind & Human Rights - June 8, 2002
http://MindFreedom.org  *feel free to forward*

        Truth comes out about Oscar award
        winning film, "A Beautiful Mind":

        How the film & drug industry worked hand
        in hand to market the film & promote products.

The psychiatric drug industry used the film "A
Beautiful Mind" to market its products, even though
the hero of the story actually quit all of his
psychiatric drugs back in 1970, before his recovery.

The May issue of _Pharmaceutical Executive_ has
an article about how psychiatric drug corporations
used the film to promote their products. A key factor
was using the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
(NAMI). NAMI has a policy of not disclosing the
amount of psychiatric drug industry money they
receive; a _Mother Jones_ undercover reporter
discovered the secret funding is in the millions.

The incredible influence of the psychiatric drug
industry managed to distort a story about a man
who quit his psychiatric drugs and fully recovered
(a near impossibility if you listen to drug
industry spokesmen), into a sales pitch for
their products.

AT BOTTOM is the article in _Pharmaceutical Executive_.
Amazingly enough, the article itself does not mention
that Nash was off all drugs since 1970, even though
the journalist was aware of Bob Whitaker's column in
_USA Today_ about this fact.

(You can e-mail a civil note to the _Pharmaceutical
Executive journalist, an e-mail address is at
bottom of column.)

For MindFreedom information on "A Beautiful Mind" see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/abm.shtml

For more information on the financial link between
the psychiatric drug manufacturers and NAMI see:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/namiwatch.shtml

BELOW is the article in _Pharmaceutical Executive_:

~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.pharmexec.com/pharmexec/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=17947

  _Pharmaceutical Executive_ -- May 1, 2002

Hollywood Stigma Buster

By: Joanna Breitstein

The Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind landed a
place in history by raising disease awareness
through its portrayal of mathematician John
Forbes Nash Jr.'s struggle with schizophrenia.
With a main character clearly outside the
stereotypic box to which most Hollywood
depictions of psychiatric patients routinely
fall-consider Psycho and Me, Myself and Irene-the
film brings insight, awareness, and education
about mental illness into the realm of popular
culture.

Pharma companies shied away from promoting the
movie because they were concerned about how the
patient community would react to it, according to
Bob Carolla, public relations manager for the
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) in
Arlington, Virginia. However, once the alliance
stepped forward to support the movie, companies
underwrote several public events. Pfizer teamed
up with NAMI to sponsor movie screenings for
theater critics and healthcare reporters in New
York. Eli Lilly worked with the National Mental
Health Association and invited California
legislators to view the film in Sacramento.
Janssen sponsored a fundraising event- at which
John Nash was the keynote speaker-for NAMI's
Mercer County, New Jersey chapter.

Pharma was able to dovetail its marketing
messages with NAMI's in the wide net of consumer
media that covered the movie because the lines of
communication were already established from
previous initiatives. The ability to do that at
the last minute, with patient support secured,
shows the priceless "ROI" pharma may obtain when
keeping third party relationships active.

Melissa Saunders Katz, director, public affairs,
global pharmaceutical communications for Janssen,
says that combining healthcare and Hollywood
generated unusual press coverage of one of its
products. She noted that local California
television stations mentioned a head-to-head
study comparing Risperdal (risperidone) and
Haldol (haloperidol) when reporting on Oscar
contenders.

But before all that activity, NAMI was working at
the grassroots level to ensure thatdialogue about
the movie included facts about mental illness.
The organization distributed press releases, fact
sheets, and disease information to the news media
and connected reporters with schizophrenic
patients, family members, and physician experts.
They distributed model Op-Eds and press releases
through their "Friday Fax" newsletter to
affiliate offices and urged members to customize
the documents and send them to local newspapers.
NAMI also encouraged patients to write to
director Ron Howard and share their observations
of the movie.

Many NAMI members wrote to Universal Studios
applauding the movie, despite the creative
liberties taken in representing schizophrenia,
and were surprised when studio executives
contacted them for permission to print their
letters in a press packet. In this unlikely
alliance, the studio used the patients' support
to market the film and form a public relations
front.

The patients also delivered pharma's message
about the importance of developing new
medications. Patient spokespeople in news
coverage focused on discussing the pivotal role
that new medications have in helping patients
live healthy lives. NAMI members were also quick
to protest a USA Today editorial by Robert
Whitaker, author of Mad in America: Bad Science,
Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of
the Mentally Ill, which suggests that
antipsychotic medicines actually hinder treatment
of schizophrenia.

"The movie had an impact on a broader cultural
debate over the role of science and medicine and
evidence-based treatment," says Carolla. "The
stakes in that debate are enormous, because it's
ultimately about investing in recovery and saving
people's lives."

email: jbreitstein at advanstar.com

- end -

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other MindFreedom articles breaking silence
about _A Beautiful Mind_:

Sarajevo manages to break silence about John Nash:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/nash_c.shtml

In speech, Nash talks about having quit drugs in 1970:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/nash.shtml

A published letter to editor about John Nash:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/abm_b.shtml

Redistributed by:
-- 

David Oaks, Director
Support Coalition International
454 Willamette, Suite 216
PO Box 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

email: oaks at mindfreedom.org
web: http://mindfreedom.org
phone: (541) 345-9106
toll free in USA: 1-877-MAD-PRIDE
fax: (541) 345-3737

"Support Coalition International is the
epicenter of the 'mad movement'!"
-- _Adbusters Magazine_ May/June 2002

Win human rights in the mental health system!
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