It sounds quaint now, but the first time I saw the Journal of the American Medical Association I was shocked to find slick full-page ads from pharmaceutical companies hawking prescription drugs the way Revlon sells lipstick in the pages of Cosmo. I had assumed doctors made decisions about drugs by keeping up with the research, poring over heavy-duty papers in their spare time to find the best medicines for their patients. Now that television and print ads for Celebrex and Lipitor are in our faces every day, no one’s surprised that drug companies are spending billions on advertising for prescription drugs, much of it aimed directly at the end user. Less obvious are the other routes they’re taking to influence us. Take, for example, “The Changing Face of Women’s Health,” a traveling exhibit in residence in a corner of the Museum of Science and Industry this fall. Its sponsors are the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, the Metropolitan Life Foundation, and Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The exhibit was developed between 1995 and ’98 by the National Health Sciences Consortium, a group of nine science museums, and it began traveling in ’99, making its way to each of them. Promoted as “cutting-edge science” that arms women with enough information to make informed health-care decisions, it’s in fact a hodgepodge of 15 or so kiosks and cubicles occupied by droning video screens and gimmicky interactive games. You can pump a lever to force red liquid through clear plastic tubes, illustrating that blood moves faster in unclogged arteries, or push a button next to the word “brain” to see a head light up in a display of body parts sapped by estrogen depletion. Eating disorders are illustrated with plates of fake food, unsafe living conditions by a dollhouse with hazards like wayward miniature electric cords. It looks like the designers were suffering from a loss of vital hormones themselves, or were thinking every visitor would be accompanied by a pack of preschoolers. They should have titled it “Women’s Health for Dummies.”
Last month the museum was the venue for a loosely exhibit-related event, a visit by Vicki Iovine, author of the popular “Girlfriends’ Guide” books on subjects like childbirth and parenting. Pfizer cut a deal with Iovine that created “Girlfriends for Life,” a public-service campaign that includes a brochure and Web site on depression and appearances like this one. Now Iovine and Susan Wysocki, head of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health (and a member of Pfizer’s advisory board and speaker’s bureau) are traveling the country, talking about what to do if you or a friend shows signs of depression. With a third of 34 million affected people failing to get help, Iovine said, “Don’t be afraid you’re going to your doctor too early. You have to take the bull by the horns.” Neither speaker mentioned Zoloft by name, but Iovine opened by advising the audience that “everything you need to know to save yourself from depression is on our Web site, www.girlfriendsforlife.org.” Including a link to Zoloft.
