Bring Your Own Bag

It is an annual embarrassment at the time of APA's annual scientific meeting to see the sidewalks of the host city suddenly populated by esteemed colleagues carrying large plastic shopping bags emblazoned with large drug company logos. It seems unlikely that the bearers of these convenient bags filled with freebies see themselves as unpaid advertisers for these companies and their products, but that is indeed what they—we—have become.

We are making progress in that APA now makes it possible to purchase an annual meeting briefcase without a drug company logo (and of course one could bring one's own), but we believe it is time to take the next step and eliminate the supersized shopping-bag ads. People—some of them patients—do notice! The fewer goodies we accept from the drug companies, the better it is for the integrity and public image of our profession, but to eliminate the blazing, free advertising would require only the foresight of bringing to the meeting an empty, almost weightless, unmarked plastic shopping bag.