http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5900685Now, I know the warped primitive gibble-gabbles baby-talk when describing foods she eats, which of course makes her look stupid, but here at this bonfire, the baby-talking warped primitive is spot on; she knows what she's talking about, and one is surprised the primitives are so resistent to learning from a primitive wiser than 99% of them.
First, the marmalade primitive:
marmar (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 05:54 PM
Original message
The Death Of Brands: Passing Up Advil For Aspirin
Who needs Advil when it is more expensive than aspirin and probably does no better at reducing pain? Who needs Starbucks (SBUX) when Maxwell House has just as much caffeine?
A new survey of purchasing data from 23,000 stores conducted by the Pointer Media Network shows that many shoppers are simply walking away from their favorite brands because they can’t afford them due to high prices during a recession.
According to Reuters, from 2007 to 2008, of shoppers surveyed “33 percent completely defected to another brand.â€
The information probably makes some of the most important “branded†companies in the world likely to have sharp earnings declines. That would certainly include huge consumer products companies Colgate (CL) and P&G (PG) and that may put their stocks under pressure. The same holds true of food and soft drink companies such as Coke (KO), Pepsi (PEP), and General Mills (GIS).
The problem that premium brand companies face may extend will beyond the recession. It is not unlike the challenges faced by GM and Ford (F). Consumers may be getting used to frugality. While the economy may recover, the recovery may be extremely slow. Many Americans still carry too much debt or are worried about their employment. Those consumers may not return to expensive brands. Hyundai’s sales may rise and people favor cheaper goods. Aspirin sales may have a resurgence.
The era of dominant brands fueled by massive marketing campaigns is going into hibernation and it may be a very long winter.
http://247wallst.com/2009/06/22/recession-watch-passing... /
lindisfarne (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 05:58 PM
Response to Original message
1. Bad article. Don't equate aspirin with advil. Advil with generic advil, fine. But if someone takes aspiring, thinking it's the same as advil, it could cause problems.
The better line would be "Passing up Bayer for generic aspirin"
There's generic aspirin too.
Taverner (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 06:03 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. Yes, and the two meds have completely different uses
Lyric (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 06:42 PM
Response to Reply #5
37. Actually the two are quite similar, with regard to pain relief.
Both are NSAIDs (unlike Tylenol, which is not.) Both are COX inhibitors. Both can cause stomach bleeding if taken excessively, as their action thins the protective mucous lining of the stomach and allows gastrointestinal acid to reach the stomach itself (which is why you should always take aspirin/ibuprofen with food.) Both can also act as blood-thinners--for example, a patient who's scheduled to undergo a lithotripsy procedure to get rid of kidney stones must stop taking all NSAIDs for about ten days beforehand, including aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen sodium (Aleve) as all suppress platelet clotting to some degree and can contribute to bleeding afterward.
However, only aspirin appears to have a significant cardiac benefit, so if you're taking aspirin for cardiac reasons, you should not get it mixed up with any other NSAIDs, and you should probably avoid other NSAIDs entirely unless your doctor says otherwise, as some of them can actually block aspirin's cardiac-beneficial effect.
Still, with the exception of cardiac usage, all OTC NSAIDs are quite similar in effect and are used for primarily the same things.
Canadiana (182 posts) Mon Jun-22-09 10:43 PM
Response to Reply #37
61. Actually NSAIDs are currently used much more commonly for pain relief, while ASA is used much more commonly for its antiplatlet effects.They both inhibit/modify COX I and II pathways in different ways and to different degrees, and have different results in the body.
The way that NSAIDs actually cause gastric ulcers is by inhibiting the trasformation of arachidonic acid to prostaglandin E2 which itself inhibits gastric acid production. Therefore they cause MORE gastric acid production.
conscious evolution (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 06:32 PM
Response to Reply #1
32. Yes and no
You,and others replying,are quite correct by saying they are not the same.
However,the article is more about name brands loosing market share for cheaper versions.He could have easily used bryers ice cream and kroger ice cream as his examples.I know I am buying cheaper brands of everything these days and I don't see myself going back to the name brands anytime soon.I'm pretty sure a lot of other people are doing the same.Why pay extra for a name?
The baby-talking warped primitive, who's right. franksolich said so:
Warpy (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 05:59 PM
Response to Original message
2. I've been a Brand X person all my life and I know that Advil and generic ibuprofen are the same thing, as should everyone: it's on the package.
LisaM (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 06:04 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. Actually, that's not true. I can never remember between Tylenol and Advil which has which active ingredient. I don't usually take either. But I had a toothache last week, after the stores were closed (we were in a place where the stores close down at 8:00 p.m., on an island, so no way to get to a store) and I looked in the medicine cabinet, because I knew that Advil was the best choice. There were off brands of ibuprofen and acetaminophen and I guessed (right, luckily) which one would be Advil.
Aspirin used to be a brand name, BTW.
I don't mean this to disrupt the larger point of this post, but when it comes to medicine, I would guess that unless people know a medicine well, they'll stick to name brands longer than with other things. I do buy store brand aspirin.
Warpy (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 06:08 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. What I do is stand there and READ
You'd be surprised at what you can learn if you do that.
Like I said, the active ingredient is right there on the packaging.
LisaM (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 06:46 PM
Response to Reply #9
38. I think you misunderstand. Despite your misgivings, I can read perfectly well.
Advil will say that it has ibuprofen. Generic ibuprofen does NOT say "this is the equivalent of Advil".
I had no way to get to a store to compare; I did not have access to a computer. I had two generic painkillers in the medicine cabinet. One was ibuprofen, the other, acetaminophen, which, likewise, did not tell me it was the generic equivalent of Excedrin. I knew I wanted the Advil substitute but I didn't know off hand which was which.
While I am not disputing the efficacy of generic brands, or the point the OP is making, I don't think it's true that everyone knows which generic brands are the equivalent of which brand name when it comes to medicine.
Warpy (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-22-09 08:19 PM
Response to Reply #38
51. Your best bet is to tune out the brand names because they're expensive, and who needs that? The specific generic you need can be looked up online, lookups will give you the drug's action.
LisaM (1000+ posts) Tue Jun-23-09 01:04 PM
Response to Reply #51
67. LOL. I HAD NO WAY OF LOOKING IT UP
NO COMPUTER. STORES CLOSED. ON AN ISLAND. NO FERRIES TILL MORNING. Is there something about that you're not understanding?
And I'm obviously not the only person with the problem.
99% of the time, I'd use aspirin (which is no longer a trademark, so anyone can use the name). I had a toothache and I knew that Advil was the best choice. But I didn't know which generic painkiller my inlaws had stocked the cabinet with was which, and I had to make a guess. I knew to use Advil only because of a friend's toothache a few years earlier. Normally I avoid drugs like that like the plague.
I think that when one is supplying a medicine cabinet in a remote place, one should choose brand names. Because people who rarely take NSAIDs don't always have memorized which is which.
Uh, franksolich is starting to develop some hostility about this lousy lisa primitive, who doesn't seem to respect authority.
It's a pretty large bonfire, but at the above point, it deteriorates into the primitives debating the difference between Starbucks and Maxwell House coffee.
