Freelance Wall Street Journal Online Columnist Carl Bialik, writing on his Gelf Magazine site, points out ads for Bayer’s Aleve have gone a bit overboard taking supportive FDA quotes out of context to make Aleve sound better than it really is. Granted, the FDA has no problem with Aleve but Bialik examines how a current Aleve ad campaign has “massaged” and mis-attributed certain quotes, much like movie marketers do, to glean positive endorsement. While Bayer and Aleve are above board products, it’s an interesting look at the length to which marketers go to insure their products are perceived in the most positive light.
UPDATE: Because of Bialik’s article, Bayer, at the request of Dow Jones, has changed the wording in its ads to more accurately attribute the quote.
