Ethical pharmaceuticals? a deeper look at the ethics in pharmaceutical public relations

This study takes a deeper look inside the ethics of pharmaceutical Public Relations within marketing campaigns. More specifically, the researcher performed case studies on the ethically questionable marketing campaigns of Fen-phen and Vioxx and compared that data with data collected from focus groups composed of Rowan University graduate Public Relations Alumni. The case studies were performed through primary and secondary research of the campaigns conducted for Fen-phen and Vioxx. The data was then used to reconstruct the two campaigns. The focus group data was collected from three focus groups, each with four members, and all data was tabulated and then compared with the data of the case studies. Findings indicate that Public Relations professionals hold to a number of unethical practices and that other Public Relations professionals do not share in the large majority of those practices