Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Cincinnati Marketing Firm:  Reye’s Syndrome for Kids?

Posted by Justin Jeffre

Photo courtesy of here.

Does it seem strange to think of kids having indigestion?  Perhaps, but a relatively new product marketed by Deskey—a Cincinnati based branding company—quietly entered the kids’ medicine market a few years ago with Children’s Pepto.  And while different from the Pepto designed for adults, the move invites confusion as parents may not understand the difference between the two similar brands—and more importantly, they may not realize the health risk.  What should we think of corporate branding specialists who specifically target kids in this manner, especially when confusion could endanger young lives?

In a 2005 press release from Deskey, Amanda Matusak describes with great excitement her style of studying children to better sell them products:

Seem innocuous?  Consider the following information about Reye’s Syndrome and its connection to Pepto:

While the kids’ Pepto does not contain this potentially life-threatening ingredient, branding confusion brought to us by strategists like Amanda Matusak could cause some parents not to understand the difference.

When contacted, Matusak asked why we were calling her and where we found that she was involved with this branding campaign.  When asked what she thought about potential brand confusion, she said, “No comment.”

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Anon says:
10 Jul 2007  at  07:24 am | #

Pharma is taking a lesson from the big tobacco play book. It has long been known that if people don’t become addicted to cigarettes before age 18, they probably won’t start smoking. Pepto is needed in youngsters to alleviate the indigestion caused by stress in their lives.

Anything for a buck? Catch 22?

cincysue says:
10 Jul 2007  at  01:53 pm | #

China just executed the head of their food and drug administration. I’m just saying…

Anon says:
10 Jul 2007  at  02:36 pm | #

I guess it hasn’t occurred to parents & guardians to first, check with the childrens’ pediatrician & second, to stand in the aisle of the store to read labeling. Somehow, this is a difficulty for adults.

Bismuth Subsalicylate is a compound that if unsure, one needs to check with a physician or a nurse before taking under any circumstances. It’s also wise to have a current list of meds, the strength, & dosage available for review by the medical practitioners.

Bismuth Subsalicylate can be very compromising if taken by the elderly who are on blood thinning meds. You didn’t know that either.

In no way could I hold Amanda Matusak, her company or the pharmaeutical company responsible. Those who take varying forms of medicines pretty much take them at their own risk, as the warnings are rather clear on side effects & very accessible. Pharmacists are generally, if not always, in the second tier to warn of adversities. It’s about time the parents & caregivers start stepping up to actual responsibility & thorough due diligence.

Now, what’s your next complaint?

says:
10 Jul 2007  at  04:11 pm | #

The fact that Pepto might kill kids is remarkable.  The fact that there would then be kids Pepto strikes me as extraordinary.

SiCKO says:
10 Jul 2007  at  04:44 pm | #

anon, shouldn’t corporate propagandists take responsibility for manipulating the developing minds of children? Isn’t this a predatory practice of the worst kind?

Shouldn’t they at the very least make sure they don’t create brand confusion and endanger the lives of children in the process?

I guess personal responsibility is only for the poor and consumers, huh?

cincysue says:
10 Jul 2007  at  05:28 pm | #

Here’s my next complaint. Parents shouldn’t have to be aware of chemicals or agents in products meant for children, but that can harm children. They shouldn’t be on the shelves. Period. And depending on the medical community who is in partnerhship with the pharmaceuticals to push their drugs, is a laugh.

And the Food and Drug Administration is simply an arm of the pharmaceutical industry. Here’s an example for you. Maybe you’ll find this one just as funny.

Hormone Replacement Therapy, now known to be the culprit behind the exhorbitant rate of breast cancer in baby boomer age women. Briefly, here’s how it went. In the 1980s you have a huge population of women in the 30-40 year old age group. Potentially a billion dollar payday for the pharaceutical companies. What to do? Well the industry first invented a condition called pre-menopausal which the medical community promoted (of course every young female is pre-menopausal, even including a 4 year old)then they needed to find a hook. So they perpetrated the myth that first, HRT was harmless but second that it (1)prevented osteoporosis (2)protected the heart (3) prevented stroke and high blood pressure (4)actually prevented certain types of cancer and for the simply vain (5) kept skin moist and young. Who wouldn’t take it? Then they financed several books and book tours by supposedly independent physicians to push the drug and subsequently hundreds of thousands of women took unnecessary estrogen and progesterin for sometimes decades. Tens of thousands of those contracted breast cancer and many thousands of those are dead. Because in 2004 it was revealed that the pharmaceuticals knew not only that all of the claims that certain illnesses were prevented, were lies (they had evidence quite to the contrary), but that the risk of breast cancer associated with HRT was very high, not low. The ensuing lawsuits are very narrowly defined because the pharmaceuticals were included in defining the parameters. Even for those women whose labs fit all criteria defined for HRT caused breast cancer,(and again that is very narrow) the woman would be required to file no more than 24 months months from the date of diagnosis. Of course this cuts the eligible population way down because one is not focused on lawsuits when fighting for one’s life. So for all the intentional misery and death caused, the price for the drug pusher companies will be settling a few low dollar class actions suits.

Anon, the next time you see a walk for cancer, or a sister or friend loses her courageous battle from an HRT related cancer, or any other person is injured or suffers from from the drug companies immoral drive for profits, not health, thank your beloved drug companies and tell the victims they should have somehow known they were being duped. They should have set up their own lab and done some independent testing, not listened to their physician. They were suckers. Tell them that.

Dying to be Thin says:
10 Jul 2007  at  07:01 pm | #

I saw this advert a day ago from a major, international company pimping the fact that Metamucil should be part of a diet & exercise to reduce cholesterol. The ad featured their usual thin pretty women you’ll see in the commercials for their shampoo, facial products, etc.

Not administered & used with common sense, is dangerous. To me, this company was feeding into the impressionable minds of our young women who believe their mirrors are lying to them.

Oatmeal & oat rings cold cereal, just 2 examples, can & will help to reduce cholesterol levels, but help to support a very nutritious plan of eating.

I wonder how many parents are paying close attention to this Metamucil advert & have called the company. I called them today. I also advised them that not one of their products is in my home, nor will they ever be.

Medicines, HRT, etc., it’s the same as anything else - let the consumer beware & educate themselves. The responsibility falls to everyone, not just the “poor”.

As for you, Cincy Sue, my doctor wanted me on HRT for a host of reasons, mainly bone structure deterioration. I was facing some painful oral surgery. I took the samples of medication, but before I popped a pill in my mouth, I got on the bus, made 2 transfers, & went to the UC College of Medicine Library & did my research. I had the medicine with me & walked to Walgreen’s & asked them to responsibly dispose of the samples. I put myself on plant estrogens & did excellently. My doctor didn’t quibble or argue with me.

I know “Anon #3”. Anon #3 is a caregiver & scrutizes every prescription before having it filled for those in the care. Rather than challenge the doctors, she’ll present other alternatives. She wins. Anon #3 lost her husband to cancer after being given false hope with all sorts of chemo & radiation treatments that killed him anyway. Be careful who you criticize & what they do. There are a scant few who aren’t afraid to ask questions & will go the distance to find out if something is safe or not for their system & lifestyle. Some are too timid to ask questions. Some are just too trusting. Then you have the lazy ones, that after a sorrowful event occurs, they lawyer up & go to Court.

Every pharmacy has the abstracts on medications available for consumers. They’ll take the time to review the material. One can obtain copies there or have someone get them from the website. No one has to go to the extraordinary lengths of making the trek to the Medical Library.

While we’re on it, how about parents wiring their kids on antibiotics for every ailment known to pediatric medicine? Where is the responsibility? Doctors are fighting an uphill battle on this particular issue, only to be strong-armed by parents lacking in common sense skills.

Anon says:
10 Jul 2007  at  08:56 pm | #

The corporations have no responsibility and they employ people that think using their creative energy is ok as long they make a buck. Corporations are dictatorships and if you want a career then you give up any Rights of free speech as well as your soul. If you think it is not a dictatorship look at your organizational chart or talk with a co-worker about your salary. Or ask questions about corporate responsibility. If you can make it through the day you can anesthetize yourself with tv or drug of choice.

The corpse have been granted full rights as persons under law through a fallacious supreme court case and therefore have rights greater than the men that created them. In addition to all rights you and I have they don’t die and have no reality other than a work of fiction. They can have as many slaves as they wish. They can fund terrorists or traffic cocaine. Unlike men they cannot be imprisoned. They have no morality because without a soul who gives a shit. They are creations of the state that only exist to make profit and to do so steal from the public through politicians they have on a leash.

Men hide behind these corporations and participate in all sorts of human rights abuses and rationalize it saying things like business is business. I call bullshit on this. Business is people and it is up to each of us to look in the mirror and ask? Does what I do support and affirm life or do I work for people that poison or kill people. The corporation you work for doesn’t have a soul to consider but you do. Live with it.

Quim says:
10 Jul 2007  at  11:03 pm | #

China just executed the head of their food and drug administration. I’m just saying…

seriously....
ok, I looked at the packages, and other than being pink and having a variation of a brand name - they look pretty different to me.
It would probably be more likely that the adult would take a children’s dosage than the other way around.
As far as anything being safe or not - I watch WCPO - I KNOW absolutely nothing is safe even tho I thought it was !

Mr, anonymous to you! says:
11 Jul 2007  at  12:08 pm | #

I’m glad they have kids pepto, the already have kids Milacon which is also for indegestion.

Maybe you should all go after McDonalds, because it’s the happy meals that get to my kids stomachs.

as far as Rye syndrom… and the other lists of things it MIGHT cause, just about any medicine there is has the potential for side effects, you know how those disclaimers go “if you have an erection for more than 4 hours consult your physician...: and so on.

I can’t see how anyone could see anything wrong with this. 

Are we next going to say hey, don’t put your kid in for Chemo to get rid of their cancer, it might make them lose their hair?

I like the beacon in general, but this particular article looks like someone trying to pick a fight, and is probably from someone who has no kids and hasn’t been kept up all night by a kids with a stomachache from the McNuggets and Fries they had for dinner.

Come on Beacon writers… don’t dilute your other good messages by putting this silly crap up.

says:
11 Jul 2007  at  12:33 pm | #

Mr. anonymous to you!, don’t feed kids McDonalds. It’s really bad for them and it’s a bad industry. Go see “Super-Size Me” or better yet, read “Fast Food Nation” or see the movie.

cincysue says:
11 Jul 2007  at  05:27 pm | #

And as for you Dying to be Thin, your little scenario, with all the transfers and grand gestures at Walgreens doesn’t hold water. The information that you so studiously analyzed at UC School of Medicine wasn’t even available pre-2004 until it was unearthed and exposed by court order. After 2004, all you had to do was search the internet and read any one of the hundreds of articles post-study and saved yourself the transfer money. And by the way, your research should have revealed that estrogen, artificial or plant-based (which is still artificial since we aren’t plants, in fact horse piss may be more natural to us because it’s from a another mammal) doesn’t protect the bones so why did you bother? Were you duped?

And since the onus is on us to make sure our goods and services are safe, did you check the tires on that bus to see if they were manufactured correctly, or set up a lab to test your dishes for lead, did you pick that plant yourself or just take somebody’s word that you were getting plant based estrogen, how about the air you breath and the water you drink, how are you controlling those? Unless you’re taking someone’s word for the safety of the product--and this includes so-called organic and natural products and substances--you’re spending a lot of time and money running tests on everything that touches your daily life and somehow, I believe that just like the rest of us, you’re just going on faith and a prayer.

I pay taxes. I fund government agencies to serve my interests--the EPA, OSHA, the FDA, etc.--to make sure that I’m not drinking piss, that there aren’t maggots in my food, to make sure my employer isn’t forcing me to work with asbestos, to make sure the plane I’m flying on isn’t serviced with faulty parts and to make sure my medications won’t kill me. Tat’s their job. I’ve got a job. And if these agencies aren’t doing their jobs heads should roll, just like in China. Fines up to and including imprisonment. We can’t accept that this is our responsibility. Individual citizens don’t have the money, or the know how to test each and every product. Sure they can read what the manufacturer says about their product which is hardly going to be honest. They have to rely on what the manufacturer or the agency claims. And when you talk about people educating themselves, they do, when the information is not hidden. (BTW are you aware of how clinical trials facilities work? That they are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to run “independent tests” on new drugs for pharmaceutical companies. Are you aware that if a facility gives a bad report on a drug that the pharmaceutical has spent millions--usually of tax payer dollars--developing that that will be the last contract they get and they’re out of business? Did you know that? Do you think they’re going to find ways to make sure that there’s a positive outcome).

And lastly, don’t ever downplay the suffering of my sisters that have been the victims of this diabolical and heinous scheme to make money. You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve calling people lazy because they “lawyer up” and take on the big powerful drug companies that have intentionally, not accidentally, harmed them.  I call them heroes. Every real woman does.

Anon says:
12 Jul 2007  at  07:37 am | #

getting into character must be delightful for you, sweety. the way you rant on is intended to take us off topic. If you want to talk about evil pharma and not the promoters of their products I’m sure the Beacon staff will post what you write. until then please take your ritelin and try to focus.

someone with an actual kid says:
12 Jul 2007  at  12:15 pm | #

"don’t feed kids McDonalds. It’s really bad for them and it’s a bad industry.”

So what if i make my three-year-old pancakes with all-organic wheat and with a nice healthy side of organic fruts and veggie fake-bacon strips, and he gets a stomachache after drowning all of that will my organic maple syrup?

Or better yet, what if he eats brussel sprouts for the first time and it doesn’t agree with his young stomach?

Your minimizing the choice of food listed in the previous comment doesn’t negate the fact that kids get upset stomachs for reasons other than stress, and as a parent, I’d like options for treating his symptoms. The fact that there’s a version of Pepto specially formulated for kids—without the compound that causes reyes syndrome in the medicine—is a godsend for making my kid feel better and letting us both sleep at night. Further, if I read the article above correctly, both regular Pepto and Kids Pepto are appropriately labelled to indicate which one is safe to use for kids and which one is not.

Really, what’s the problem? That some parents will ignore the dosing instructions? That they’ll just grab a bottle of something they take and pour it down their kid’s throat because that’s what they would do?

That’s bad parenting. Not bad marketing.

says:
12 Jul 2007  at  01:10 pm | #

Does anybody know what part of the chicken “McNuggets” come from?

someone with an actual kid says:
12 Jul 2007  at  02:53 pm | #

Does anybody know what part of the chicken “McNuggets” come from?

Does anyone know what color a red herring is?

cincysue says:
12 Jul 2007  at  05:40 pm | #

Anon - If my rant takes you off topic--tough shit. Who asked you? This is the Dean’s site and if he wants to block me, he will, and so far he hasn’t. You have a need to participate but nothing to add. That’s okay. You can live vicariously through me. But please, learn to spell dummy.

says:
13 Jul 2007  at  07:42 pm | #

someone with an actual kid, you actually might want to pay closer attention to what you feed your kid if they are having all these stomach problems.

Seriously, you should think about where McNuggets come from before you feed them to your kid since you’re talking about bad parenting. I’ll tell you it’s a really disgusting part of these chickens. I used to eat them too.

I’m all for having something that helps with stomache problems, but it’s possible that this marketing could cause branding confusion and that could confuse parents and hurt children, that’s all. I think it is bad marketing. I personally don’t think that PR firms should target young children. I think it’s wrong.

someone with an actual kid says:
13 Jul 2007  at  09:48 pm | #

Thanks for being concerned about my parenting, but I never said I fed my kid McNuggets; that was a previous poster. I feed my kid more organic foods than fast food, but that doesn’t preclude him from getting an upset stomach from time to time—as much from organic foods as processed foods—as we discover new foods that don’t agree with him.

As for marketing to kids, well, PR companies can do all the juvenile market research they like. But in the end, my three-year-old isn’t the one selecting or paying for the medicine, let alone making the dosing decisions, so it just doesn’t matter.

But I commend you on continuing the Beacon’s unparalelled tradition of making mountains out of molehills....

cincysue says:
14 Jul 2007  at  06:01 am | #

You know if you have to feed your kids chicken nuggets and fries, they’re pretty simple to make at home sans all the added colors, preservatives and other harmful chemicals. You can get hormone free, antibiotic free tenderloins at Trader Joe’s, bread them with seasoning and flour, do a quick high heat browning in canola oil and then bake. It should be obvious how to make home made french fries. This can be done in batches and frozen. A version of every other fast food can also be made at home with healthier ingredients. Do today’s parents really not know this?

says:
14 Jul 2007  at  01:29 pm | #

I went to a drugstore and looked at the labels on Pepto and Pepto-Bismo.  I have to agree with the Dean that the labeling invites “branding confusion.” The labeling on the Pepto-Bismol packages (liquid and tablet) was in very small print.  There was no label on the Pepto package that warned against giving Pepto-Bismol to kids.  To me this is akin to the former practice of giving kids candy shaped like cigarettes for Halloween.

I can easily see the possibility where a parent has been giving their kid Pepto and it either runs out or the kid still feels sick.  Then one could easily think that Pepto-Bismol may be used, perhaps by cutting the dosage in half or even a full dose, saying the kid is “big for his age.”

Reye’s Syndrome is not well understood and does have a high mortality rate.  The connection between it and salicylates was only realized within the last 30 years.  I myself remember getting Pepto-Bismol as a kid—many people wouldn’t even think of spending the time hunting for this small print label on the bottle if their child was hurting.  Their parents gave it to them, so it must be safe.  Right?

Perversely, one of the early symptoms of Reye’s Syndrome is nausea.  I can even see where a parent could unintentionally make the syndrome worse.

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