Author's posts
How drug and soap commercials are manipulating you
Having worked as a copywriter and creative director at some of the world’s top ad agencies, including McCann Erickson (now McCann Worldgroup), I am vehemently critical of new advertising. Why? I know the tricks and how they manipulate well —…
Why isn’t medical advertising regulated like other advertising?
As long as you live, you will never hear an article from news media contending that “America Runs On Duncan.” Why? Because the line is a marketing allegation created by the advertising company and designed to sell product. Yet news media re…
Are rapid weight loss drugs hiding the real obesity problem?
According to some academics, in 2019, a ban on junk food advertising across London’s entire public transport network—foods and drinks high in fat and salt and ads for foods–resulted in the prevention of 100,000 obesity cases. Yet the U.S. love af…
Drug prices and fast approvals can harm patients
An excerpt from Big Food, Big Pharma, Big Lies. Few fail to be shocked at the rising prices of some prescription drugs. “Drug companies have raised prices relentlessly for decades while manipulating the patent system and other laws to delay compe…
An alarming rise in military suicides: Unveiling hidden crisis and urgent need for action
During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, suicides among active-duty troops were frequently reported. Since then, news reports have subsided but the suicides have not. In fact, a 2022 report from the Defense Suicide Prevention Office revealed that there we…
Fool women twice? Drug makers revive menopause as a “disease.”
In the words of the late soccer great Pelé spoofed on Saturday Night Live, women’s health has been “very, very good” for drug makers. In 2002, 61 million prescriptions were written for women in the U.S. for hormones to treat the so-ca…
A job behind bars
At least two million people in the United States are incarcerated in 122 United States prisons. Little is known about the prisoners themselves. Did their background condemn them to bad behavior? Or did they just make grievous mistakes? Do they suffer f…
The scientific race to defeat a deadly virus
An interview with David Quamman, author of Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus. Rosenberg: After the publication of your 2012 book Spillover, in which the scientists you interviewed talked about expecting the “next big one,&#…
