Today we published reviews of two very weak news stories on menopause by two mainstream organizations – HealthDay
and WebMD. Women facing menopause deserve much more detail about the quality of the evidence behind small, short-term studies than these stories provided.
Meantime, this week, journalist Liz Scherer who has her own menopause blog called “Flashfree: Not your mama’s menopause” gave us another example of how bloggers often deliver the goods that mainstream news orgs don’t get to. (Screenshot from her blog at left.)
Her post: “Feeling like a ‘raging maniac?’ There’s a Facebook app for that!” It’s about some docs promoting their bioidentical hormone replacement therapy by posting a ‘Rate the Raging Maniac’ page on Facebook.
The marketing people behind this promotion call it a “playful quiz” that allows them to “poke fun at the otherwise serious symptoms of hormone conditions like perimenopause, menopause and thyroid imbalances.”
Scherer isn’t laughing. She says she’s appalled. Excerpt:
“I don’t know one woman who wants to be rated as a raging maniac, publicly or otherwise. I don’t know any friends, colleagues, or intimate partners who would be so insensitive to rate people in their lives as raging maniacs or those ridiculous quirky character pseudonyms that your marketing folks have come up with, characters like “Sexi Lexi,” “Forgetful Fran” or “Negative Nancy.” I don’t know who your social marketing person is but you may want to think about replacing them with someone who understands women.”
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Puleeeeease... this 'game changer' weight loss drug causes more nausea and vomiting than a placebo. Some game, some change. My friend Gary would spank you for using the eighth word medical reporters should never, ever use. @garyschwitzer @thackerpd
https://www.healthnewsreview.org/toolkit/just-journalists-writing-tips-case-studies/7-words-and-more-you-shouldnt-use-in-medical-news/ https://twitter.com/OttawaCitizen/status/1361426796126830597
A scary @statnews Op-Ed warns that govt attempts to rein in Pharma may cut off access to "life-changing" drugs.
It takes @garyschwitzer to let us know: the author spent 10 years as Pfizer's public-policy chief. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1360325022578053123
.@TranspariMED criticizes STAT op-ed for not disclosing pharma funding of author’s institute - similar to criticism we’ve made of STAT op-eds in the past. @transparify @ThinkTankWatch @icer_review https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2021/02/transparency-watchdog-criticizes-stats-non-disclosure-on-pro-pharma-op-ed/
Comments (2)
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Jacqui Brown
April 17, 2011 at 1:15 pmI’m so there. Menopause is a pisser, literally, especially when you sneeze. Hay fever season, that’s when I walk around wearing rubber boots. They act like an aqua duct so I don’t have to go around screaming that ‘my water just broke’ all the time!
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