Virginia Hopkins Health Watch The Science of Alternative Medicine

Qlaira® Birth Control Pill

Truthiness in Advertising: Is Qlaira® Really a “Natural” Birth Control Pill?

New oral contraceptive, Qlaira® is being marketed as “body-identical” but a closer look proves otherwise.

The headline of the “consumer media” press release from Bayer Healthcare says, “Natural hormone inspires new contraceptive pill.”

Really?! I thought. This could be exciting! But of course it was not to [...]

Truthiness in Advertising – Gardasil

Here’s the script of a TV ad for Gardasil, a vaccine for the human papillomavirus ( HPV) which may cause cervical cancer. These ads have been widely broadcast and feature hip young skateboarding and drum-playing girls just wanting to be “one less.” The Gardasil ad script is in italic type. My version of the truth, as I think it should be voiced by Merck, the manufacturer, is in normal type.