Lies, Lies and More Lies

If you are one of the millions of people here in America who foolishly believe the big drug companies are interested in curing sicknesses and "healing" the public, dream on. Their vested interest is in addicting you to pharmaceuticals, to perpetuate a stream of income into their pockets until you are dead.

In fact, my greatest fear about death, is not in dying, it's in lingering on in sickness and being shoved in some hospital where I am nothing more than a pin cushion for the doctors, and a blotter for the drug companies. That is a scenario I hope I, or anyone in my family never has to deal with, and hopefully you won't either.

Here, listen to this story: Back when I was a financial planner, I became good friends with one of my clients who was a cardiologist. A very bright guy he was, and very down to earth. Yes, he had a bit of an ego like most doctors who are high up the food chain, but his ego was limited to his "doctoring." In his non-doctor life, for those of us who were lucky enough to see it, he was as real, genuine, and caring as a person could be.

I always remember something he told me about doctors, and how sometimes just because of the nature of what they do ("doctor"), their level of their competency is misleading. He said, "Craig, do you know what they call the guy who graduated last in medical school?"

"Nope."

"They call him 'Doctor.'"

Pretty profound. Really puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

But how about someone who never graduated from medical school -- what do they call him?

Well, if you're a crooked big pharmaceutical company like Pfizer, you call him "Doctor" as well.

No shit.

Here's the deal: You've probably seen the television commercials for Lipitor (Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug) with Dr. Robert Jarvik, one of the inventors of the artificial heart. Using Jarvik as a celebrity pitchman definitely ads credibility to the effectiveness of this drug.

The problem is, the ads refer to Jarvik as a "doctor." In reality, he's got a medical degree but he's not licensed to practice medicine, nor has he gone through residency training. He's actually an inventor and a researcher.

That's like calling someone with a law degree, who works at Barnes and Noble, a lawyer. Or someone with an accounting degree, who works as a management consultant, an accountant.

The feds began looking into this commercial, and rather than get hassled, Pfizer has pulled it.

What's amazing is that, if they had Jarvik saying something like, "Look, I'm NOT a doctor, but as one of the medical researchers involved in the development and creation of the artificial heart, I know how the body works. And here's what happens when you have high cholesterol..." blah blah blah -- this would have been a fantastic pitch -- and an honest one.

Look, I'm all for aggressive marketing, but be creative, not deceptive. Fear of being honest creates nothing but bad marketing and bad karma, ultimately. And in reality, your prospects are simply STARVING for honesty. So take advantage of that, and don't let 'em down.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber