The Hightower Report

Name That Drug!

What does the word "Prozac" say to you? Or "Viagra"? Yes, they're brand names for widely used prescription drugs, but how did they get those names?

Believe it or not, there is a naming industry. It consists of consulting firms that specialize in the art, science, and voodoo of helping pharmaceutical giants come up with monikers that supposedly will sear themselves into the public psyche, subliminally causing the consumers to feel positive about the product and demand that particular drug.

Sound hokey? Be your own judge. The consultants (who get paid up to $500,000 per drug name) insist that letters are imbued with psychological meaning. "P," "T," and "K," they claim, convey effectiveness. "Z" is speed, "X" is scientific, and "L" is calming.

Take the antidepressant Prozac. The honcho of Namebase, the branding firm that worked with Eli Lilly to name this drug, can get all worked up about the impact of just the first syllable. "Pro," he explained to an Associated Press reporter, "makes the speaker pucker up and push out a burst of air, which grabs attention and implies effectiveness."

Hmmm. Would that burst of positiveness also apply to "profane," "profligate," "procrastinate," "promiscuous," and other "pro" words with negative meanings? But I'm not a naming consultant, so who am I to question?

Let's move on to Viagra. Anthony Shore, who is "global director of naming" for another branding firm, informs us that this appellation is all about power, causing gullible consumers to associate the product with Niagara Falls. On the other hand, another erectile-dysfunction drug named Cialis is more of a metro-male term. Shore says that it is a smooth, fluid sound that conveys a sense of intimacy.

The word that comes to mind when I hear such claims by high-paid consultants is claptrap – conveying artifice, humbuggery, and a deep sense of being had.

Cashing In on Payday Loans

The Bible tells us that Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple (for charging less, by the way, than we're now assessed on our Visa and MasterCard bills).

Credit card rates of 20% or so are ridiculous – but what should we call an interest rate of 400%? "Rip-off" is too nice of a word. "Gouging" fits, but even it can't convey the raw greed embodied in such a usurious rate for the use of money. Charging 400% should be called "criminal," but lobbyists for the quick-cash industry have monkey-wrenched state usury laws to make such loan-sharking legal in 40 states.

Worse, this legalized theft targets vulnerable, very-low-wage working people – those living paycheck-to-paycheck who can least afford to have their pockets picked. They typically are given a loan of $300, minus an upfront fee of about $50. Two weeks later, the full $300 is due. Often, they can't pay, so they take out another high-interest loan and are sucked even deeper into this lending whirlpool.

These "trapped borrowers" have become a lucrative profit center for the lenders – who, by the way, are not fly-by-night, back-alley operators but well-manicured executives with a gloss of corporate respectability. These quick-cash purveyors have about 24,000 flashy storefronts across the country, making them even more ubiquitous than Starbucks. They rack up $40 billion a year in revenues, maintain PR firms to perfume their practices, create political funds to grease necessary skids, and deploy armies of lobbyists to legalize their usury.

The good news is that states are beginning to rein in these payday hucksters by capping their interest rates at a merely outrageous level of 36%. For information, connect with the Center for Responsible Lending: 919/313-8500 or www.responsiblelending.org.

For more information on Jim Hightower's work – and to subscribe to his award-winning monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown – visit www.jimhightower.com. You can hear his radio commentaries on KOOP Radio, 91.7FM, weekdays at 10:58am and 12:58pm.