Gimme an Rx! Cheerleaders Pep Up Drug Sales
Karen Olaes, MSIII

As an ambitious college student, Cassie Napier had all the right moves - flips, tumbles, an ever-flashing America's sweetheart smile - to prepare for her job after graduation. She became a drug saleswoman. Ms. Napier, 26, was a star cheerleader on the national-champion University of Kentucky squad, which has been a springboard for many careers in pharmaceutical sales. She now plies doctors' offices selling the antacid Prevacid for TAP Pharmaceutical Products.Ms. Napier says the skills she honed performing for thousands of fans helped land her job. "I would think, essentially, that cheerleaders make good sales people," she said.

I don't know what the fuss is all about. We all know cheerleaders are hot. We have them dotting the sidelines, why not the hospital? Personally, I'd like to see company cheerleading uniforms, with "Pfizer" or "Merck"embroidered on bloomers under short skirts...

After 2 rotations, I met ONE pharm rep with a science degree, the only one able to engage in an informative and educated dialogue with doctors. Apart from 2 other men, the rest were women, and all without any science background. Not to say they were unintelligent or unabashed temptresses, but they were merely pretty, and perky, and yes, one was a cheerleader. As a woman, I was uncomfortable watching them engage in bullshit small talk and regurgitate pamphlet information to an audience who ignored or humored them, at the very least.

I am sickened by it. The debate about whether or not doctors should even be persuaded by general marketing is a different issue. What pisses me off is this sexual marketing and objectification of women, wholeheartedly accepted by doctors and my Maxim-loving fellow medical students, not to mention our beauty-obsessed society at large. Sex sells, and Pretty-Pharm-Reps-Without-Extensive-Knowledge-of-Their Product exist because these goddamn companies take advantage of the fact that medical culture is still male-dominated, and thus penis-driven. It's maddening but almost humorous to see the Reps stroking doctors' egos, and knowing that some of the docs are thinking of something else being stroked.

It angers me that doctors - men and women - allow Sex to sell diabetes medication, and are complacent about Reps that don't know jack shit about pharmacology beyond what they are given to memorize. What do we really learn about a drug from these people? Shouldn't we have some integrity and resist this thinly veiled ploy?

No, doctors are human. We'll accept the free lunch and free samples, and we'll enjoy the 30 minutes of being fed by bubbly flirtatious pretty women and handsome jovial good ol' boys. It saddens me to see the ugly elitism and power high that naturally occurs when doctors' asses are kissed. I hate that my bitter, haggard, sleep-deprived, always-behind-in-reading Bitch surfaces whenever Size 2 PYT walks down the hallway. I know she's just making a living, furtively using her good looks, amiability, and command of the art of manipulation. She's human too. Everyone needs to get paid.

Money money money. Millions goes towards this dance that is ultimately empty and debases Intelligence. It makes me lose respect for everyone involved, especially my generation of medical students who readily accept this as the status quo. And it may be unfair and unwarranted, but I've lost a bit of respect for these female drug reps who are willing to be an essential part of a system that ultimately values them for their sex appeal and not their intelligence, even disregarding it. Their existence, flaunted in the face of women who are still struggling with inequality and respect in the workplace, offends me. I know it's not their fault; it is the fault of our society's values, and it is my fault for sitting back, speechless, yet another allowing it to happen.