The Netflix series, Painkiller, not only shows the devastation caused by a drug produced by Purdue Pharma, Oxycontin, but it makes us realize the amount of persuasive power a good marketing campaign can have on people’s mindsets. Packaging, remodeling, promotion, positioning, etc., are as significant as the product itself because often, we see that it is not the quality of the product that determines its sales but the perception that people have about it which can be easily manipulated. There has been an advent of advertising agencies because everybody knows how indispensable their services are and how they impact the success or failure of a venture.
After Richard Sackler had given the orders for the creation of one of the best sales task forces, young girls were being actively employed by Purdue Pharma, and they were given the task of convincing the doctors in their specified areas to start prescribing Oxycontin. These naive girls, who were ready to do anything for earning some quick money, were manipulated and deceived in the worst possible manner so much so that they believed that they were helping the cause of the people who were in pain and possibly doing the noblest job in the world. Shannon Shaeffer was one such vulnerable soul who was nowhere close to living her best life when she came into contact with the sales team of Purdue Pharma. She was good-looking, she had a way with words, and most importantly, she had no clue how to get out of her miserable situation and do something to secure herself financially. The character of Shannon Shaeffer is not based on a specific person, but she represents the kind of experiences that many sales representatives working for Purdue Pharma went through.
Britt Huffrod, who was already a senior sales representative for Purdue Pharma, saw through a young Shannon Schaeffer, and she realized that Shannon was the exact kind of girl they were searching for and who had the potential to convert potential clients into long term customers. Shannon was young and vivacious, and she could only see that whatever Britt did, it was sufficient to buy a Porsche and afford a swanky apartment in the center of the city. She asked Britt if she could also afford all those luxuries in her life and be successful in her life, and Britt made her believe that she was destined to be rich and nothing else. A girl who was barely making ends meet didn’t want to hear anything else, and she was so pumped up that she was ready to go to any extent to get the doctors to prescribe Oxycontin.
Where Britt had closed her eyes and expected that the world couldn’t see her, Shannon Schaeffer, at times, did question the legitimacy of what they were up to. There were times when she felt that by asking doctors to prescribe the drug, she was ruining lives, but the rustling sound of dollar notes always overpowered everything else. The sales representatives were compensated handsomely, and one time, Shannon got a bit inquisitive about how someone was earning a bonus of as much as $42000 when she put in equal hard work, and she had almost every other doctor prescribing oxycontin in her area. That’s when Britt said that she needed to convince her doctors to prescribe a higher dosage of the drug, and then she might stand a chance to win a huge bonus. For Shannon, terms like prone to abuse, efficacy of dosage, and lab analysis, were merely things mentioned on the pamphlet that they had been given by Purdue Pharma, and she had no clue whatsoever as to the meaning of what she was saying.
There was one doctor named Dr. Fitzgibbons who made her privy to reality and told her that she was selling death, and she didn’t even know how many families she had destroyed. Britt told her not to pay attention to any such naysayers, as they were just jealous and insecure about seeing a woman progress in a man’s world. Such was the influence of Britt that Shannon bought it, and not even once did it cross her mind that if a doctor was saying something, then it might not be totally false. The narrative was always morphed for these young sales reps, and they were shown a very glossy picture that was miles away from reality. Britt Huffrod, who was already a senior sales representative for Purdue Pharma, saw through a young Shannon Schaeffer, and she realized that Shannon was the exact kind of girl they were searching for and who had the potential to convert potential clients into long term customers. Shannon was young and vivacious, and she could only see that whatever Britt did, it was sufficient to buy a Porsche and afford a swanky apartment in the center of the city. She asked Britt if she could also afford all those luxuries in her life and be successful in her life, and Britt made her believe that she was destined to be rich and nothing else.
A girl who was barely making ends meet didn’t want to hear anything else, and she was so pumped up that she was ready to go to any extent to get the doctors to prescribe Oxycontin. Where Britt had closed her eyes and expected that the world couldn’t see her, Shannon, at times, did question the legitimacy of what they were up to. There were times when she felt that by asking doctors to prescribe the drug, she was ruining lives, but the rustling sound of dollar notes always overpowered everything else. The sales representatives were compensated handsomely, and one time, Shannon got a bit inquisitive about how someone was earning a bonus of as much as $42000 when she put in equal hard work, and she had almost every other doctor prescribing oxycontin in her area. That’s when Britt said that she needed to convince her doctors to prescribe a higher dosage of the drug, and then she might stand a chance to win a huge bonus.
For Shannon Schaeffer, terms like prone to abuse, efficacy of dosage, and lab analysis, were merely things mentioned on the pamphlet that they had been given by Purdue Pharma, and she had no clue whatsoever as to the meaning of what she was saying. There was one doctor named Dr. Fitzgibbons who made her privy to reality and told her that she was selling death, and she didn’t even know how many families she had destroyed. Britt told her not to pay attention to any such naysayers, as they were just jealous and insecure about seeing a woman progress in a man’s world. Such was the influence of Britt that Shannon bought it, and not even once did it cross her mind that if a doctor was saying something, then it might not be totally false. The narrative was always morphed for these young sales reps, and they were shown a very glossy picture that was miles away from reality.
Things changed for Shannon Schaeffer when she saw with her own eyes that teenagers were buying Oxycontin and getting addicted to it. She saw one girl pass out under the influence and it scared the hell out of her. Shannon might have wanted to get rich quickly, but unlike Britt, she was not delusional, and her conscience was still pretty much alive. She informed Britt about what she had seen, and Britt also knew that Shannon’s fears were not baseless, yet she told Shannon that it was the drug addicts who were the problem and Purdue Pharma was not doing anything wrong. Shannon bought it, but the truth was not going to leave her, and she kept getting haunted by the thought that she had a role to play in the opioid epidemic.
The turning point for Shannon was the annual general meeting of the company when the picture became pretty clear for her, and she decided to give Edie Flowers all the evidence she needed to put legal sanctions on the company. She saw the United States Attorney for the District of Maine, Jay McCloskey, in the afterparty, and she realized the amount of power Richard Sackler had and how he had rigged the entire system. McClowskey was the one who raised the issue that oxycontin was prone to abuse in Congress, and how Purdue Pharma has misrepresented that fact and given false lab reports to mislead the people. But now even he was part of the Sackler family, and Shannon saw how, in the market of greed, the voice that came within, often became meek with time and was unable to stand its ground.
Shannon Schaeffer knew that she would have to do something about the situation, as she could see another generation of salesgirls wreaking havoc on families just like she had. She did get a lot of money, but she couldn’t face herself in the mirror. It mattered to her what she thought of herself, and so to clear her conscience and prove to the world that she was not a bad person, she met Edie Flowers and gave her all that she could use as evidence. What Shannon did was no less than an act of bravery, and we understand that it wouldn’t have been easy to make up her mind to go against the people because of whom she had been able to afford such a lifestyle and feel good about herself. Her Porsche was expensive, but she didn’t want to drive it at the cost of her values and ethics. Had John Brownlee not adhered to the orders of his superiors, the evidence to which Shannon had access would have been enough to bring charges against the Sackler family. But as we said, the system is not fair, and the triumph of honesty and integrity are like imaginary concepts that look good only in films.
