By Haris Silic
More and more, going for a doctor’s visit resembles going to a department store. The doctors are very busy and have very little time for you, but they will do their best to be nice. You tell him or her what is ailing you, and they come back with a beautifully packaged box of samples, of medicines that is. Pills of all colors, shapes and sizes. You leave thinking, “I can’t wait to showcase my new disorder!”
This may seem exaggerated, but after reading How to brand a disease — and sell a cure, I am afraid this example is not far from reality. According to Dr. Carl Elliott, Bioethics Professor at the University of Minnesota, pharmaceutical companies have created conditions (diseases) where their drugs can literally sell themselves. They have borrowed this philosophy of creating desire for a product from Godfather of public relations Edward Bernays. In the 1920s, Bernays had to sell pianos. He was very successful at this because he sold the idea that affluent homes needed to have a music room. Once they had a music room built in their house, they would naturally buy a piano for it. It worked like magic – he designed an environment of desire where the product sold itself.
Dr. Carl Elliott argues that pharmaceutical companies take quite rare and maybe benign conditions and brand them into diseases. He lists two sorts of conditions as excellent candidates: “shameful condition that can be destigmatized” such as overactive bladder and “under-diagnosed” conditions such as “social anxiety disorder.” He concludes that branding diseases would not be so bad (after all everything else around us is branded) if it wasn’t for harmful side effects of these drugs. This is what really caught my attention.
What role do we as designers, and brand managers play in this process? What would happen if one of our clients was part of Big Pharma, and asked us to create a brand for a drug that we knew had detrimental side effects? What would you do?
3 Comments on "What brand is your disease?"
The other side of the story is that when people believe a pill is going to cure them it often does—even if its just a placebo.
This is a fascinating article from Wired that talks about how doctors are now prescribing useless drugs just to invoke a placebo effect, and how even the color of the pill can effect the results: http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all
Fascinating article. I am really interested in exploring the role of design in creating environments of desire that fuel today’s demand for pharmaceutical consumption. Thanks for reading the article Kathryn, and suggesting the Wired one. Hope all is well.
I think food cures people, not drugs. my grandpa and 2 of my uncles have been doctors in their whole lives. I learned a lot of medicine and health tips from my family. But branding is totally another thing, I feel like the placebo effect and the color of the pill effect the results thing are about psychology. Design does effect us mentally.