A gift by any other name?

When I just started by career in medical writing, I had to write and advertorial for a very simple little product. No complicated data, no strange side effects, but it was for the treatment of one of the symptoms of a very complicated disorder. 


I have never been fond of the advertorials that look like pages out of a clinical paper and luckily the client did not want one of those. So we had to hook the reader with something interesting and then go on to provide the information on the product. My approach was to show something complicated, relate this to the disease and then show the solution (the product) as the simple decision. 


Sudoku was all the rage then, the newspapers had just started printing them and I did my morning Metro Sudoku on the train to Mortlake every morning. So I thought, why not put in a really complicated Sudoku puzzle, that would give it some stopping power, make it retainable and relate nicely to the complicated disorder. 


I don't know why we checked if this was allowed according to the code, but we did, the verdict...it's a gift, not allowed. We could only use it if we inserted all the numbers.


With the new ABPI code banning gifts we immediately think: no more gifts with mailings and no more handouts at stands. But how does the new code apply to those nice little cardboard engineering mailers that turn into calendars and pen holders and such?


I am afraid that according to the supplementary information to Clause 18.1 any promotional mailing which can be used for practical purposes would be in breach.


"Many items given as promotional aids in the past are no longer acceptable. These include coffee mugs, stationery, computer accessories such as memory sticks, diaries, calendars and the like." ABPI code of practice, 2011.

So even if the promotional aid is folded in paper, it is still a promotional aid and covered under this clause. Sorry direct mail companies, pharma business may be low from now on.