As much as we are inundanted with daily exposures of corporate greed and profiteering, this expose on the consumer marketing practices of the pharmaceutical industry was an eye opener.

We've all seen ads for drugs proliferate in the last few years. But, until we saw "Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs," we never realized the full breadth of the insidious marketing strategies of Big Pharma.

Frankly, it kind of takes your breath away.

Although it has long been the basic tenet of American consumerism that advertising is built upon persuading potential buyers to feel that they need something that they don't really have to have, it's startling -- to say the least -- to see this tactic applied to medications.

Furthermore, the pharmacy companies play "games" by repackaging drugs with the most minor of changes and creating consumer-driven demand for name-brand products that are much more expensive than comparable generics. They even create new syndromes, which they then persuade consumers that there is a need for treating these "maladies" with an expensive pill.

"Big Bucks, Big Pharma pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry to expose the insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances created, for capital gain.

Focusing on the industry's marketing practices, media scholars and health professionals help viewers understand the ways in which direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription medication, and works in tandem with promotion to doctors. Combined, these industry practices shape how both patients and doctors understand and relate to disease and treatment.

Ultimately, Big Bucks, Big Pharma challenges us to ask important questions about the consequences of relying on a for-profit industry for our health and well-being."

Narrated by Amy Goodman, this is a power-packed documentary with a punch.