When pharmaceutical companies give pens, notepads and other freebies to doctors, they aren't just being nice. It's a promotional ploy intended to subconsciously influence the doctors -- establishing a relationship, putting a company or drug at the tip of a doctor's tongue ... and prescription pad.
Doctors insist that a few free lunches don't affect their decisions. Of course, nobody consciously realizes that they've been suckered. That's why it's called a subsconscious influence. Journalists write about this often. But at conventions such as BIO, journalists are on the receiving end of this deluge of gifts. Is it possible that our interests are so conflicted?
Above are the contents of the loot bag I schlepped back from BIO. And as I play with my heavy-metal magnets and insanely cool gel-filled Magic 8-Ball, I realize how utterly preposterous such a suggestion is. Why should the scions of the life science industry -- the best and brightest, the movers and shakers -- be persecuted for taking the time and energy to provide me with a few keepsake mementos? I, for one, am utterly unaffected by their unflagging generosity.
