Advertising Works: Money Spent on Health Messaging Reflects Public Perceptions

Negative Advertising: Foes of Obamacare have outspent friends of the law by more than three to one.  Public attitudes about the law seem to reflect that imbalance rather than any accurate understanding of what the law does, reports Abby Goodnough for the New York Times.

Pharmaceutical Marketing: Public health advocates are saying that Merck went too far in marketing chewable grape Claritin pills directly to children, using characters from the movie Madagascar 3, reports Katie Thomas for the New York Times.

Insurance Rebates: People around the country will be getting $1.1 billion back from health insurance agencies that failed to meet the cap on profits and overhead included in the new health care law, reports Sarah Kliff for the Washington Post.

Alcohol and Pregnancy: A Danish study suggests that children are not harmed if their mother drinks in moderation during pregnancy. The children of women who had up to eight drinks a week, even those who binged with five or more drinks on a single occasion, showed no mental deficits, reports John Gever for MedPage Today.

Antibiotics: A report showing that it is hard for some people to buy meat that was not raised on antibiotics issued by Consumer Reports is getting attention from many quarters reports Maryn McKenna for Wired Science Blogs.

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Photo credit: wstera2 via Flickr