|
On page 2 of the Nov. 27, 2007, issue of The ASHA Leader, an ad claiming that the OASES assessment instrument is a "confidence builder" was published next to a letter highlighting similarly unfounded claims in a previously published ad for the SpeechEasy. This juxtaposition would have been merely amusing were it not for the editor's note at the bottom of the letter, which directed readers to Rick Henderson's "Perspective" column that claimed, essentially, that it is not ASHA's responsibility to check the accuracy of the advertisements it prints.
If this is true, then it is time to change ASHA's advertising, marketing, and promotions policies. Defending an advertiser's or the Leader's right to "sell products or advance a brand" with assertions such as that "if data do not exist" then any claim can be made in advertising because it "remains ripe for further study" (Henderson, p. 20) flies absurdly in the face of ASHA's many current efforts toward promoting evidence-based practice and promoting the highest ethical standards in practice, research, and publications. The defense that we are at least as strict as the American Medical Association (AMA) is less than compelling, given the influence of pharmaceutical marketing on the AMA, and the pithy little quote that "dishonesty in advertising has proved very unprofitable" might be true in a larger market but probably has several of The ASHA Leader's advertisers laughing all the way to the bank. ASHA can do better.
Anne Bothe
Athens, GA
abothe@uga.edu
|