A little humor and satire about drugs in America

[leopardprintz]

Here's what MedNews has to say:
"FINALLY!
A magic bullet lifestyle pharmaceutical has arrived that delivers us a
glimpse of the future of corrective pharmacology"

Michael E. **News Item Below**

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070216/od_ ... _drug_fake
Fake drug, fake illness -- and people believe it!
Fri Feb 16,
A media exhibit featuring a campaign for a fake drug to treat a fictitious
illness is causing a stir because some people think the illness is real.

Australian artist Justine Cooper created the marketing campaign for a
non-existent drug called Havidol for Dysphoric Social Attention
Consumption
Deficit Anxiety Disorder (DSACDAD), which she also invented.

But the multi-media exhibit at the Daneyal Mahmood Gallery in New York,
which includes a Web site, mock television and print advertisements and
billboards is so convincing people think it is authentic.

"People have walked into the gallery and thought it was real," Mahmood
said
in an interview.
"They didn't get the fact that this was a parody or satire."

But Mahmood said it really took off over the Internet. In the first
few days
after the Web site (www.havidol.com) went up, it had 5,000 hits. The last
time he checked it had reached a quarter of a million.
"The thing that amazes me is that it has been folded into real Web
sites for
panic and anxiety disorder. It's been folded into a Web site for
depression.
It's been folded into hundreds of art blogs," he added.

The parody is in response to the tactics used by the drug industry to sell
their wares to the public. Consumer advertising for prescription
medications, which are a staple of television advertising in the United
States, was legalised in the country in 1997.
Cooper said she intended the exhibit to be subtle.

"The drug ads themselves are sometimes so comedic. I couldn't be
outrageously spoofy so I really wanted it to be a more subtle kind of
parody
that draws you in, makes you want this thing and then makes you wonder why
you want it and maybe where you can get it," she added.
Mahmood said that in addition to generating interest among the artsy
crowd,
doctors and medical students have been asking about the exhibit.
"I think people identify with the condition," he said.

Copyright C 2007 Reuters Limited.
Check this out: www.havidol.com

[Teresa Kramer]

I copied and pasted www.havidol.com and found a cool (fake) ad! Too sad to be funny… Teresa (Northern VA)
Change the world one small loan at a time...

See www.kiva.org to find out how!
Fake drug, fake illness -- and people believe it!
Fri Feb 16,
A media exhibit featuring a campaign for a fake drug to treat a fictitious
illness is causing a stir because some people think the illness is real.

[Ananda Ruchira]

...yeah

and the drug's name is

avafynetyme HCI

(go ahead, repeat it out loud a few times....)
Sincerely,
Didi Ananda Ruchira
Director, Abha Light
visit: www.abhalight.org
tel: +254 20 445-0181 / cells: 0733-895466 / 0723-869133
skype: anandarucira
----------------------------------------------
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by Jambo MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.
---------------------------------------------
"easy access to the world"