EDITORIAL PHARMACEUTICAL ADVERTISING AND PROPAGANDA: WHAT'S THE LIMIT?

The word "publicity" comes from the Latin " publicus ," meaning "public" or "belonging to the people."From this comes the verb "publicare," which means "to make public" or "to divulge."Advertising, therefore, refers to the action of making something known to a wide audience.The word "propaganda" comes from the Latin propagare, meaning "to spread" or "to extend."Specifically, it is derived from the passive future participle propagandus , meaning "that which should be spread."Originally, the term was associated with the Catholic Church institution charged with spreading the faith, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, founded in 1622.Over time, the term became generalized to refer to any type of effort to disseminate ideas or information with the goal of influencing public opinion.It is essential that we can define each of these concepts in order to contrast them.First of all, advertising and propaganda are two forms of persuasive communication, so they have a common root.The main differences between advertising and propaganda lie in their objectives and methods.Advertising seeks to promote products or services to generate sales or revenue.Propaganda, on the other hand, focuses on spreading ideas, seeking to influence people's attitudes so that they adopt specific behaviors.Likewise, propaganda has traditionally been described as misleading advertising.After this initial distinction, we can point out other differences between both concepts: