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Mr Sneeze is selling drugs
A newly published Mr Men children's book which appears to promote anti-allergy medicines is to be investigated by a government watchdog.

The book in question - "Mr Sneeze and his allergies" - looks like any other book in the hugely popular Mr Men series. However, unlike the other books, it includes two pages promoting the use of anti-allergy drugs manufactured by pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline.

The book, which was paid for by GSK, has sparked concerns over how far pharmaceutical companies should be allowed to go in passing on information to patients.


Mr Sneeze the chemist
The book was written by Adam Hargreaves, whose father Roger created the Mr Men series in the early 1970's. The story tells how Mr Sneeze starts to sneeze "in the middle of summer". His companion Little Miss Sunshine suggests he might have hay fever but his sneezing does not stop after he ploughs up all his grass and cuts all the flower heads of the plants outside his house. But this fails to stop him sneezing and with the help of Miss Sunshine they discover that he is allergic to the feathers in his pillow. Mr Sneeze then has a call from Mr Silly and his pet chicken Rover which causes him to start sneezing over again.

The story is then followed by four pages of information on allergies from Allergy UK and two pages promoting the use of GSK products Piriteze and Piriton.

Muriel Symmons, who chairs the charity, said they provided the information after being approached by a public relations company which works with GSK. "We were actually quite delighted to provide this information. We provide information to lots of organisations. We did not receive any money for it," she told BBC News Online. "However, we are not wildly happy with the pages on Piriton and Piriteze."

The charity has sent copies of the book to allergy clinics across the country and further copies upon request to some doctors. "One doctor asked us to send more copies but asked if we would mind if they removed the pages promoting the drugs. We said we did not."

More than 100 million Mr Men books have been sold since 1971, making Roger Hargreaves the second best-selling UK author after Harry Potter creator JK Rowling.

Household goods giant Procter & Gamble recently published a children's book about a cartoon bear who also features in campaigns for Charmin toilet paper.

The Adventures of Charmin the Bear, written by Mr Benn creator David McKee, contained four stories focusing on the bear being "soft", "comfortable" and "strong" - the same attributes the company claims for the toilet tissue.

Article from 2003-08-12   Article REF 75   


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