MySpace: Advertising Drugs Or Informing Users?

MySpace can be easily placed among the most popular social websites on the Internet because it owns a really huge number of registered members of all ages. Because this service has a strong impact over the teenagers, Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals created a new website hosted by MySpace that sustains it informs users about prescription painkillers (oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and methadone) and heroin, TechCrunch reports. The new page, codename Addiction411, brings valuable information to the MySpace users who want to read details about drugs and their impact over the human body.

"The availability of this site comes at a perfect time considering the rate of prescription painkiller abuse has seen a drastic spike in recent years, particularly among the demographic of teens and young adults (16 - 25 years old) that utilize MySpace," it is mentioned in the description of the site according to the same source.

"Partying this weekend? You know it's easy to find drugs and you also know that some are addictive. But did you know that it's not only illegal drugs like heroin that can be addictive, but also legal prescription painkillers like Percocet, Vicodiin and Oxycontin? From 1993 to 2005, the number of students who abuse prescription painkillers increased 343%. Prescription painkiller abuse leads to addiction. You may know people who use drugs, and many of them will likely become addicted, also known as drug dependent. Add this page as a friend and let your friends know about it. You may be able to help someone who is headed toward drug addiction," the official page reads.

What's more important about the website is that many of the links lead to another webpage, TurnToHelp, also owned by Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals. At a closer view, this looks like a nice advertising trick that might drive traffic to another site owned by the company. The folks from TechCrunch are even more irritated and talk about this attempt as about "selling drugs."

"What this really is: advertising revenue for MySpace and a marketing site for Suboxone and Subutex, two drugs that help fight painkiller addiction. Most of the links on the site forward on to TurnToHelp, another marketing site for Reckitt Benckiser. The function of Addiction411 is to sell more drugs, not necessarily to help users," Michael Arrington from TechCrunch wrote today.