How much do pharmaceuticals spend... to get your money?

Going to the mailbox today I found a letter - sorry, an advertisement - addressed to my mother-in-law, who currently lives with us. Knowing she wasn't going to be opening this junk mail, I was curious to see what exactly was inside. You see, it was from Walgreens and the only thing it seemed to be advertising was the flu shot. This, of course, is not really unexpected. One can find ads for the flu shot pretty much everywhere one looks at this time of year, and it's only going to get worse. I'm certain I will soon be seeing the ubiquitous, massive billboards by the local hospitals again telling us all to cover when we sneeze, wash our hands constantly, and oh, oh oh - don't forget your flu shot!


SIGH.

This "little" advertisment we received in the mail, however, just blew me away with its presentation. To give you a little background, there was a year of my life some time ago in which I spent writing for a physical newsletter I'd created. It was about education and homeschooling - another one of my passions. The reason I bring this up is because, although my little publication didn't receive a lot of attention and I really tried to be as economical as possible, it definitely taught me that printing and sending fliers costs a lot and takes a lot of time and effort.

This flier was slick, too; a glossy, multi-page foldout with well-designed graphics AND a pocket containing a pre-filled, multi-page form for my mother-in-law to return at her convenience. It boggles my mind how much money was spent on this advertising campaign. Whenever you receive something in the postal mail, you should always mentally multiply that times the size of the campaign. Since this is a national retailer at work, it's probably safe to multiply this one ad by thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. Then consider that this is a small drop in the bucket of flu vaccine advertisement campaigns. It is amazing how much companies spend on this.

Remember - these are companies, not individuals. Any single company's purpose in sending out advertisements is NOT for the good of all mankind - it's to make money. So if they're spending this much already on advertising these drugs, how much are they raking in?

I hate to think about it.

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