Oh boy. Good catch on this example of stealth marketing. Not at all surprising. The whole "Depression Hurts" campaign associated with Cymbalta is quite interesting. Cymbalta claims to relieve pain associated with depression despite the bulk of the evidence indicating that Cymbalta is not a pain relieving medication for people with depression. Does the FDA care that the marketing is grossly misleading? It would appear not. If you doubt me, go to Lilly's clinical trials online database and look at the results -- the effects on pain in depression are meager at best. Then go to www.depressionhurts.com and see how Cymbalta is marketed.

Yet, despite no evidence of superiority to any existing product and quite weak evidence of providing pain relief in depression, Cymbalta continues to goggle up market share due to stealth marketing and blatantly misleading advertising. But why NOT engage in these tactics when they work and nobody steps up to hold you accountable?

Good read,anything for profitable PR there are an estimated 90,000 pharma reps in the USA can't watch the evening news anymore without being bombarded with 'ED' ads.

--
Daniel Haszard Bangor Maine~Eli Lilly's zyprexa gave me diabetes

Kinda like the flight attendant syndrome huh.
Coffee, tea, or Cymbalta?
Would you like sugar with that?

The pharmaceutical industry is a master at manipulating victims and turning them into spokespeople for the very medications that killed their loved ones. It really makes me sick. This combined with celebrity endorsements by actors and actresses that get paid handsomely for their efforts are the two marketing tricks being most heavily employed at the moment in the wake of scrutiny of DTC advertising.

If you go to www.expeditionhope.org now, you'll see that Lawson failed, yet again.

Being the marketing hack that he is, he decided (in his week-long wait in his tent for the actual climbers to finish their summit) that he is, indeed, depressed. This virtually ensures that Lilly won't dare drop him...

What is truly depressing is the fact that the Lawson family’s unspeakable tragedy has been so shamelessly used to dupe a major pharmaceutical company and to further Joe Lawson’s egocentric endeavor. Unfortunately, Eli Lilly, a company well known for generous donations to numerous worthy charitable organizations, has been fooled into supporting Lawson’s self-aggrandizing effort. Lawson has long made unsubstantiated and/or deceptive claims about his association with adventure racing in an apparent effort to paint himself as an accomplished outdoor athlete. Undoubtedly these claims were used as the basis for deceiving the Eli Lilly Company into funding his contrived scheme. Climbing the seven summits is a feat reserved for accomplished mountaineers with extensive training and experience. It is inconceivable that a reputable company like Lilly would knowingly fund such an endeavor on the basis of Lawson’s nearly non-existent mountaineering experience and complete lack of any actual athletic accomplishment. I hope that Lilly does more thorough due diligence on the drugs they develop.

I read with interest the AP article about Expedition Hope. I found the article to be an accurate reflection of many of the claims that Joe Lawson has been making about his so-called charitable organization and its efforts to “raise awareness” about depression and mental illness. As impressive as Lawson’s claims may be, closer examination reveals that the truth about Expedition Hope is nothing like what is reported by the media’s parroting of Expedition Hope press releases.

I am no journalist, but a few minutes on the internet and a call or two to the IRS and the organizations that Expedition Hope claims to support can be very enlightening. Has anyone bothered to check the 501.3.C status of Expedition Hope or the Expedition Hope Foundation? If you call the IRS (877 829 5500) you will learn that there is no record of Expedition Hope, or the Expedition Hope Foundation for that matter (so much for those tax deductible donations). I’m not a lawyer or an accountant, but I would think that you cannot deduct a donation to an organization that is not on record with the IRS as being a charity. It seems that anyone who has made a donation would want to know this before the IRS audits their return.

As stated on the Expedition Hope web page, seventy five cents of every dollar donated to by Lawson’s awareness raising campaign will be given to Mental Health America (incorrectly identified on the Expedition Hope web page as the National Mental Health Association) with an additional 10-cents per dollar given to the Marion County Mental Health Association. Check with them and see how much money has been donated as a result of all the awareness raised by Expedition Hope’s multiple mountaineering failures. You will learn that Mental Health America has received a paltry $400 during 2006 and the Marion County Mental Health Association has received nothing.

Considering the fact that land costs alone for the failed expeditions to Mt. Elbrus, Mt. McKinley, and Vinson Massif exceed $35,000, it seems that Lilly’s investment in “raising awareness” is having almost no impact at all. To be fair, the most expensive failure of the Expedition Hope fiasco occurred only days ago with Lawson’s inability to even reach Camp 2 on Vinson Massif (while the rest of the group seems to have reached the summit). Stay tuned, an inspirational performance like that may be just what Expedition Hope needs to start a flood of donations.

Don’t take my word for it. Do a little research on your own and see what you turn up. Peel back the thin veil of “raising awareness” and Expedition Hope is nothing more than a Lilly sponsored global boondoggle masquerading as a charity. The only thing newsworthy is Lawson’s fraudulent and shameless exploitation of his family’s tragedy.