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How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

themarkup.org

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Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#41

Post by designium »

GuB-42 wrote: post #13

Is there some proof that big pharma really targets sick people? The article mentions targeting for things like "cancer awareness" as a proxy for cancer patients. But why target patients? Patients usually don't decide on the drugs they take, doctors do, they should be the target, not patients. So maybe we can take things at face value, big pharma is not targeting cancer patients, instead they are targeting those who a…

The ads are effective to bring awareness. There are doctors who will “help” patients to discover if they have conditions to warrant the use of the drugs they saw on TV or social media ads.

This brings patients to doctors, then they get lab work done and finally the use of drugs. That activates the full value chain of the system meaning that all the participants in that chain get paid.

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#42

Post by kalleboo »

Wolfenstein98k wrote: post #16

"How Big Auto finds users with car troubles on Facebook" "How Big Lighting finds users with blown bulbs on Facebook" "How Big Chocolate finds users with cravings on Facebook"

The difference is that Facebook says they specifically avoid sensitive health information https://www.facebook.com/business/help/361948878201809?id=18...

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#43

Post by gerdesj »

moksly wrote: post #7

“If you’re a drug manufacturer looking for patients”. Maybe I’m just too Scandinavian to understand, but wouldn’t it be the other way around? Now I also wonder if I should see a doctor. I’ve been getting a lot of “is your will in order” commercials from law firms on Facebook recently. I sure hope big tech advertising doesn’t know something I don’t.

Replace the word patient with customer or "money".

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#44

Post by CapriciousCptl »

moksly wrote: post #7

“If you’re a drug manufacturer looking for patients”. Maybe I’m just too Scandinavian to understand, but wouldn’t it be the other way around? Now I also wonder if I should see a doctor. I’ve been getting a lot of “is your will in order” commercials from law firms on Facebook recently. I sure hope big tech advertising doesn’t know something I don’t.

In the US, it's legal to advertise drugs directly to patients. There's not a lot of places in the world where it happens, I'm assuming Scandinavia is one of them.

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#45

Post by StreamBright »

dools wrote: post #2

The article seems to suggest this is a bad thing, but my first reaction is "fantastic". Pharmaceutical companies create life saving medicines and then use advanced social media targeting to locate the people that need them. The only bad thing about it is if those people targeted can't afford the medication, which is why healthcare needs to be a universal right. People love to bitch about Big Pharma but I have a magic…

Yeah so I guess the users have nothing to say in this. If I walk in to store they supposed to know what I want and a clerk puts the items into my basket and kicks me towards the checkout.

Are you serious?

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#46

Post by Ensorceled »

cornel_io wrote: post #24
Wolfenstein98k wrote: post #16

"How Big Auto finds users with car troubles on Facebook" "How Big Lighting finds users with blown bulbs on Facebook" "How Big Chocolate finds users with cravings on Facebook"

How anyone finds users that will buy their products on Facebook: serve ads, report revenue, and let FB figure out how the fuck to optimize it without you doing a goddamn thing. Frankly that's all that digital marketing should be (a button PMs press, not a division at every company), I'd rather one or two highly regulated and excruciatingly scrutinized companies manage all the details than millions of small shitty one…

Regulation is pretty simple, ban collecting information on users behaviour for advertising.

If advertising is forced back into being based on the content you are currently viewing or the site you are currently on or the key words you typed into the search bar ... this levels the playing field for all advertisers and ends the adtech arms race.

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#47

Post by SargeZT »

dave84 wrote: post #18
GuB-42 wrote: post #13

Is there some proof that big pharma really targets sick people? The article mentions targeting for things like "cancer awareness" as a proxy for cancer patients. But why target patients? Patients usually don't decide on the drugs they take, doctors do, they should be the target, not patients. So maybe we can take things at face value, big pharma is not targeting cancer patients, instead they are targeting those who a…

When I visited the US a few years ago it seems like every TV ad break there was a "Feeling X, ask your doctor about Y". Where X was some generic condition like bloating or feeling old, and X was a brand name prescription drug.

I can categorically say that is untrue. While not a fan of direct pharmaceutical marketing, the FDA has strict rules about what needs to be in an advertisement. Chiefly, it must address:

* At least one approved use for the drug (the actual medical condition that it has been tested for)

* The generic name

* Nearly every side effect the drug can give you. There are some side-rules on that one.

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#48

Post by rich_sasha »

CapriciousCptl wrote: post #44
moksly wrote: post #7

“If you’re a drug manufacturer looking for patients”. Maybe I’m just too Scandinavian to understand, but wouldn’t it be the other way around? Now I also wonder if I should see a doctor. I’ve been getting a lot of “is your will in order” commercials from law firms on Facebook recently. I sure hope big tech advertising doesn’t know something I don’t.

In the US, it's legal to advertise drugs directly to patients. There's not a lot of places in the world where it happens, I'm assuming Scandinavia is one of them.

One particularly funny side effect is that the narrator needs to read out a comprehensive disclaimer.

I was once on holiday and with US TV, and saw a few times an ad for performance enhancement for older gentlemen. The ad showed an older couple, who first are not very happy, then much happier with each other, frollicking in the long grass and disappearing off shot etc.

While that was happening, the narrator was reading in an impassioned, but also somewhat undulated voice: "side effects include headaches, blurred vision, hypertension, liver failure, paralysis and death" [I can't quite remember the list, basically it went from minor to death, as most drugs do].

For someone not at all used to serious drugs being advertised on prime-time TV, this was quite a thing to see.

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#49

Post by moksly »

CapriciousCptl wrote: post #44
moksly wrote: post #7

“If you’re a drug manufacturer looking for patients”. Maybe I’m just too Scandinavian to understand, but wouldn’t it be the other way around? Now I also wonder if I should see a doctor. I’ve been getting a lot of “is your will in order” commercials from law firms on Facebook recently. I sure hope big tech advertising doesn’t know something I don’t.

In the US, it's legal to advertise drugs directly to patients. There's not a lot of places in the world where it happens, I'm assuming Scandinavia is one of them.

Maybe it’s because of how we buy prescription medicine. You’ll get the prescription from your doctor, and then go to a pharmacy where they will default to offering you the cheapest brand available at the time of your purchase, and ask if you’re cool with that.

So we sort of have a culture where you only really stick to certain brands if you’ve ever had a bad reaction to a copy product. I’ve got a hay fever for instance, and for the past many years I’ve stuck to the same brand of antihistamines because I once bought a box that made me nauseous and I just went back to what I had previous used. This is anecdotal of course, but it took me almost a decade to learn the name and not just ask for the ones in the green box.

Re: How pharmaceutical companies find sick users on Facebook

#50

Post by [deleted] »

CapriciousCptl wrote: post #44
moksly wrote: post #7

“If you’re a drug manufacturer looking for patients”. Maybe I’m just too Scandinavian to understand, but wouldn’t it be the other way around? Now I also wonder if I should see a doctor. I’ve been getting a lot of “is your will in order” commercials from law firms on Facebook recently. I sure hope big tech advertising doesn’t know something I don’t.

In the US, it's legal to advertise drugs directly to patients. There's not a lot of places in the world where it happens, I'm assuming Scandinavia is one of them.

[deleted]
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