I have to take my hat off to the marketing team at GlaxoSmithKline. Never one to miss a trick in advertising by proxy sees their current Facebook page cover them in garlands with the post "Take a Swipe | Malaria No More UK – Ending Malaria Deaths" Their page, which can only be viewed if you use Facebook's "Like" button, can be accessed HERE
Whoever moderates Glaxo's page, be it a highly paid member of their marketing team or a student on an internship have deemed it fit to add the following comment to the 'Take a Sripe' post:
Take a swipe at malaria by buying GlaxoSmithKline products such as Lucozade, Ribena, Panadol and Beechams from participating Esso service stations during September 2011. For every GSK product purchased, 5p will be donated to Malaria No More UK.
Here's the thing about the first product of theirs they advertise - Lucozade
Back in July last year I reported on an article run by The Independent. Glaxo, along with A.Barr, manufacturers of every Scots persons favorite drink, Irn Bru, were forced warn parents that the drinks may cause hyperactivity.
Their second product advertised [by proxy] on their Facebook post is Ribena
Here's part of a story from an article that appeared in The Guardian in 2007.
Schoolgirls rumble Ribena vitamin claims
Two New Zealand schoolgirls humbled one of the world's biggest food and drugs companies after their school science experiment found that their ready-to-drink Ribena contained almost no trace of vitamin C.
Students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo tested the blackcurrant cordial against rival brands to test their hypothesis that cheaper brands were less healthy.
Instead, their tests found that the Ribena contained a tiny amount of vitamin C, while another brand's orange juice drink contained almost four times more.
"We thought we were doing it wrong. We thought we must have made a mistake," Anna told New Zealand's Weekend Herald. The girls were both 14 and students at Pakuranga College in Auckland when they did the experiment in 2004.
Given Ribena's advertising claims that "the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges"
So, Glaxo's concerted, or should that be conceited, effort to show what a caring company they are via Facebook seems a pretty decent exercise but, as usual, they aren't giving the consumer all the facts. I just thought I'd address the balance with this blog post of mine.
Incidently, I added a comment to the Glaxo Facebook post. It was a genuine question that, for the moment, has not been answered by the Glaxo Facebook moderator.
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I'll keep you posted should they respond.
Fid
ORDER THE PAPERBACK 'THE EVIDENCE, HOWEVER, IS CLEAR...THE SEROXAT SCANDAL' By Bob Fiddaman US and CANADA HERE OR UK FROM CHIPMUNKA PUBLISHING
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