GSK & MR. SNEEZE
Trawling through the numerous archives of articles written about GlaxoSmithKline and children I stumbled upon this old favourite of mine. I remember when I first read it some years back that I was quite shocked that they had been allowed to team up with the Mr.Men team.
For those of you that don't know, Mr.Men was a popular childrens animation back in the 1970's here in the UK. From that came the books written by Roger Hargreaves. The audio clip above is the theme tune to the popular Mr. Men series.
Back in 2003, Roger Hargreaves son, Adam, wrote a book entitled 'Mr. Sneeze and His Allergies'.
It told how Mr Sneeze starts to sneeze "in the middle of summer". His friend Little Miss Sunshine suggests he may have hayfever.
Mr. Men educating our children it seemed.
It continued by telling the reader [Children] that Miss Sunshine discovered that he was allergic to the feathers in his pillow. All good educational stuff one would assume but why tell childrren about allergies? Was there some sort of motive behind this?
Step forward the genius that is GSK.
The story was followed by four pages of information on allergies from Allergy UK and two pages promoting the use of GSK products Piriteze and Piriton.
Over 50,000 copies of the book were printed in 2003 and many were sent to holders of Tesco clubcards.
Apparently the MHRA were unaware of the book and stated at the time that they "will investigate urgently."
I wonder what the outcome of that investigation was? I won't bother the MHRA with a FOI request as I know they read this page. Maybe one of my readers will want to learn more of the outcome of this investigation?
According to this source the book was paid for by GlaxoSmithKline.
I see it as a flagrant form of advertising and yet again we have GSK targetting the vulnerable [Our children]
Piriton is sold by GlaxoSmithKline and this from their own webpage - "Trusted by generations of mums, Piriton provides fast relief from hayfever and other allergies. Piriton also relieves the itchy skin rash of chickenpox, and can be taken as syrup or tablets."
Piriteze is also sold by GlaxoSmithKline and the blurb for this reads: - "From the makers of Piriton, an effective, once-a-day treatment for hayfever and skin allergies. And as Piriteze does not normally cause drowsiness, it can help you and your family enjoy life outdoors."
More can be read about GSK and Mr. Sneeze here, here and here - the last link being from the British Medical Journal.
I may write to Adam Hargreaves at some point and ask him if he wants to create an new Mr. Man, let's say Mr. Blogger, an average man harmed by Pharmaceutical drugs who goes on a mission to find out why this was allowed to happen. Maybe Adam would be so kind as to put a link in to this blog and numerous other ones set up to create awareness about the underhand activities of GlaxoSmithKline.
Fid
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