Archive for branding
FDA paranoia – who knew?
Posted by: | CommentsIn its rigorous search for food & drug safety, the FDA added searching through the personal emails of agency employees who questioned FDA decisions.
That would be an oops – for both sides of that story.
(c) PBS | Frontline
Here’s the lowdown: on Sunday (Jan. 29, 2012) the Washington Post reported that the FDA was being sued by staffers – scientists and doctors charged with testing medical devices – for harassment and wrongful dismissal as a result of the agency’s surveillance of their personal email accounts. That email surveillance revealed that the FDA staffers were contacting Congressional staff with whistle-blower complaints about FDA approval of devices that the scientists and docs thought were a risk to patients.
Hue and cry! Bad FDA!
Actually, I agree that the snoopy surveilling of personal email accounts is creepy, even wrong.
However, here’s the rub: the FDA staffers were accessing their personal email using computers at work. At the FDA. Within the Federal government IT infrastructure. You know, the people that oversee other stuff like Echelon. And the Pentagon. Gee, FDA guys plotting whistle-blower campaigns on work computers – stupid much?
On the FDA side of the story, we have creepy fascist tactics deployed by an agency that should be all about making sure that no pharmaceutical, no medical device, no food product makes anyone sick. Or worse, dead.
The record there? Not so stellar. Can you say Vioxx?
On the outraged-former-employee side of the story, we have some folks who thought they were veryvery smart (scientists and MDs always think that, trust me), but who played veryvery stupid on the interwebz.
Accessing personal email on a computer that belongs to your employer is pretty dumb if you’re doing or saying anything that casts a shadow on the hand that feeds you. Yes, that means you become the bad dog, and that’s not a great role to play. Because “no-no-bad-dog!” translates to “your ass is fired” in this scenario.
Even if you’re on your own computer, and you’re using your employer’s network or VPN, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy.
It boils down to this: just like anything else on the web, don’t put anything on it/through it unless you’re willing to either have it on page 1, above the fold, of the WaPo or the New York Times. Or your boss’s desktop.
The saddest part of this story is that the FDA really does need a total tear-down. It’s become too obstructionist to what could really improve public health, and too easy-peasy for big-money players who want to make the system work for Citizen Corporate, not Mr./Ms. Every-patient.
This lawsuit could become quite the precedent-setter, if it gets past the lower courts with its plaintiffs intact.
Stay tuned for further developments. I sure will.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …
Don’t wind up on the least-wanted list
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Yes, kids, it’s that time of year again.
ChristmaHanaKwanzaKah is once again in the hearts and on the minds of everyone from sea to shining sea – and beyond – so it’s time for a remedial lesson on How to Succeed in Business Without Really Lying.
Here are the Mighty Casey Media rules for surviving the holidays with your sanity – and your client list – intact:
- Don’t be a grinch. If you’re not a big fan of the holidays, don’t trash those who are. You don’t have to go overboard and wear a pair of reindeer antlers all month, yet neither do you have to tell the office Christmas Elf that s/he is crazy for loving the holidays.
- Be a gracious guest. If you’re invited to a holiday celebration by a client or a colleague, accept with thanks. Attend with intent to find the cheer. Bring a friend along who could be a good prospect for the business. Holiday gifts can come in the form of customers. Take it from one who knows.
- Be a thoughtful host. If you host a holiday gathering, make sure to keep the conversation and connection flowing. Configure your party so there’s plenty of opportunity to interact, and make the rounds continually to ensure that everyone is enjoying themselves. And have a defined end-time for the party, which saves having to shovel folks out the door.
- If you can’t deal, deal yourself out. If the holidays drive you nuts, that seems like a great excuse to take off on a vacation, a retreat, or a sabbatical. Deal yourself out of the holiday merry-go-round, and return to the game refreshed after Santa’s blown town.
Merry ChristmaHanaKwanzaKah to all, and to all a way to make the end-of-year insanity work for you!
New Golden Rule: See something? SAY SOMETHING.
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Recent events have led me to believe that the world is populated by blind people. Or at least people who are easily sold on crazy.
One of those recent developments is the unfolding drama at Penn State, where icons of college sports – both the college and the coach – have been revealed to have been, if not active perpetrators, at least willing-to-look-the-other-way co-conspirators in child sexual abuse.
I use the image on the right because (a) it’s one of my favorite ad posters ever and (b) what happened at Penn State happened in a washroom.
If you see something, SAY SOMETHING. Even if you don’t/can’t/won’t DO something, at least speak up. And don’t take “it’s just [insert utterly unacceptable excuse here], don’t worry, I’ll take care of it” as an adequate response.
SAY something to someone who can/will DO something. Not the bishop that the pedophile priest works for. Not the coach who’s the supervisor of the guy who’s raping a child in the shower.
SAY SOMETHING to the cops.
“If you see something, say something” is the tag-line for a current Dept. of Homeland Security awareness campaign, aimed at stopping terrorist activity before it becomes an actual attack.
If rape isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is. All crimes against persons – assault, rape, mugging, et al – is terrorism on a small scale, leaving marks as deep as surviving a bus bombing. In some ways, these very personal attacks leave deeper marks, because an entire community doesn’t share the victim’s experience. The person is left to deal with the aftermath alone. Just as the Penn State victim – he’s been dealing with the aftermath since 2002, essentially alone. And now the whole world is watching.
If you see something – someone hitting a child, slapping their spouse, raping a child in a freakin’ locker room – SAY SOMETHING. If you see it in your house. If you see it on your street. If you see it in the office. If you see it at your school.
See bullying? Say something. See domestic violence? Say something. See a theft, or an assault? Say something.
Find someone with a badge and a gun – and not just a university/school cop, either – and report what you saw. Keep talking until they listen.
If you see someone with a badge or a gun perpetrating a crime, call the FBI. Use your cellphone camera, and take it to the media.
See something? SAY SOMETHING.
All that it takes for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing. That’s always true, and never more true than in the situation where both the Catholic church and Penn State find themselves. An institution that’s trusted with the care and education of children has no excuse: if you see something, say something. Otherwise you’re approving the act.
It’s that simple.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …
Healthcare: It’s time for us to #arabspring this b*tch
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I had the opportunity to speak at a digital pharma marketing conference – DTC Perspectives’ Marketing to the Digital Consumer – last week. “DTC” is Direct To Consumer, by the way. I was representing the patient voice, at the invitation of my friends at the health activist community WEGO Health.
It was terrific for several reasons – connecting with other healthcare social media peeps in pharma, meeting and mingling with some powerful voices in pharma leadership, learning more about the regulatory environment that pharma marketers work in – but the biggest “wow!” that day happened between my ears.
I realized that pharma – and healthcare in toto – is desperate for its own #arabspring. A complete re-alignment of the entire system, driven from the bottom up, that will benefit all players: pharma, health systems, clinicians, researchers, patients … people. All of us.
This epiphany arrived courtesy of a combination of factors.
First, I felt a little like a zoo animal, since I was the only one at the conference wearing an Official Patient sign. I found that amusing, since everyone in the room is a patient at some level, even if they’re only seeing a doc once a year for a check-up. I’m not even a pharma consumer who’s on a buffet of drugs, although I do take a fat handful of supplements every morning. Why are patients seen as exotic creatures by pharma, and by most of the healthcare industry?
Patients = people, people. Treat us like … people.
Second, since I also wear a PR/media/content-creator hat, I saw that they were making a real effort to understand how they could take advantage of social media as a direct-marketing tool. They were approaching this as an industry with a huge regulatory oversight burden, from the FDA to the US Patent & Trade Commission to the host of regulatory bodies in other countries where these companies sell pharma products to doctors or direct to consumers.
Some of the regulatory step-on they’re struggling with they brought on themselves with “me-too” drug formulation and disease-mongering (“restless leg syndrome”? Really?). In conversation with a couple of high-level folks from big pharma, I learned that they routinely hear “we’ll have to run this past sales” when they want to try a new approach to communicating with their market. Why does sales drive communication? If pharma wonders why they’re seen as a scrum of hucksters, look no further than “running it past sales” when it comes to new ideas.
That combination of being seen as an exotic because I was a patient, and recognizing that, as an industry, pharma is an inverted pyramid crushing itself under the weight of heavy regulation caused, and continued, by a run-it-by-sales communication model, led me to the idea that people (a/k/a “patients”) need to #arabspring this b*tch.
People – patients – need to examine their relationship(s) with healthcare, and pharma, and ask what value they are getting from those relationships. Tell those that help how they’re doing, and tell those that aren’t to either clean up their act or take a hike.
Don’t fall for disease-mongering.
Don’t settle for less-than-full disclosure from any of your healthcare providers – in other words, ask why your doctor is prescribing a name drug, if a generic is available.
Act as if your health is YOUR responsibility. Get off the couch, call a halt to drive-through nutrition, examine your habits and ditch what doesn’t serve you, and your health.
Engage with pharma companies who provide you or your family with drugs that work, and tell them so.
Rabble-rouse the FDA to stop standing on innovation, and to start freeing up both farm AND pharm to help us eat better, and help researchers bring new drugs that actually help to market.
Take to the the streets by visiting your local farmer’s market and buying/cooking local. Boycott processed cr*p disguised as food.
The presentation deck I used at the conference, with added narration, is linked here.
I welcome comments, arguments, suggestions.
I recommend that you read my buddy Phil Baumann’s take on “we are all patients”. (He’s right, BTW – which is why I say patients = PEOPLE, people.)
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …
Raising Cain … then lowering him. 3 tips to avoid that mistake.
Posted by: Mighty Casey | Comments (0)photo credit: Toby Harnden|Daily Telegraph
The quadrennial silly season known as the US Presidential race has been in full cry on the Republican side for about six months now, with some highly entertaining spectacle already on display. Unfortunately, a popular favorite, Herman Cain, who had built up quite a head of steam as a leading contender, has been somewhat sidelined by accusations that have put his campaign in PR-crisis-management mode.
First, let me make it clear that I have no dog in this fight. I’m still waiting for the Logic Party to form, and meanwhile am a member of the No Labels movement – in other words, I’m apolitical outside the voting booth. Inside the voting booth, I hold my nose and do the best I can under the circumstances.
My purpose here is to point out the three simple, yet critical, steps Cain and his campaign communications team should have taken to, if not 100% avoid this epic mud-fest, at least keep it at small-mud-puddle level.
I feel for the guy. I covered every Presidential race from 1980 to 2004. As I put it in my bio: I covered wars, Presidential campaigns, and Presidential campaigns that turned into wars. Politics is a rough, nasty, no-holds-barred business – the higher the office, the sharper the knives and the bigger the guns you’ll be up against.
Failing to recognize that, and failing to get in front of any negative information in your past by revealing it yourself first, guarantees painful war wounds.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …