Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19134
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: Journal Article
Mackert M, Love B, Holton AE
Journalism as Health Education: Media Coverage of a Nonbranded Pharma Web Site
Telemed J E Health 2011 Jan 23;
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/tmj.2010.0127
Abstract:
Abstract Objective: As healthcare
consumers increasingly use the
Internet as a source for health
information, direct-to-consumer
(DTC) prescription drug advertising
online merits additional attention.
The purpose of this research was to
investigate media coverage of the
joint marketing program linking the
movie Happy Feet and the nonbranded
disease education Web site
FluFacts-a resource from Tamiflu flu
treatment manufacturer Roche
Laboratories Inc. Materials and
Methods: Twenty-nine articles (n =
29) were found covering the Happy
Feet-FluFacts marketing campaign. A
coding guide was developed to assess
elements of the articles, including
those common in the sample and
information that ideally would be
included in these articles. Two
coders independently coded the
articles, achieving intercoder
agreement of κ = 0.98 before
resolving disagreements to arrive at
a final dataset. Results: The
majority of articles reported that
Roche operated FluFacts (51.7%) and
mentioned the product Tamiflu
(58.6%). Almost half (48.3%)
reported FluFacts was an educational
resource; yet, no articles mentioned
other antiviral medications or
nonmedical options for preventing
the flu. Almost a quarter of the
articles (24.1%) provided a call to
action-telling readers to visit
FluFacts or providing a link for
them to do so. Conclusions: Findings
suggest that journalists’ coverage
of this novel campaign-likely one of
the goals of the campaign-helped
spread the message of the Happy
Feet-FluFacts relationship, often
omitting other useful health
information. Additional research is
needed to better understand online
DTC campaigns and how consumers
react to these campaigns and
resulting media coverage and to
inform the policymakers’ decisions
regarding DTC advertising online.
