Plastic surgeons across the U.S. are regularly pitched pay-to-play “press placement” by PR agencies, according to private messages shared by three board-certified plastic surgeons.
Many doctors in the profession actually ante up, apparently eager to have their name and newfound status in the limelight.
For as little as $2,500, you, too, can be one of America’s best plastic surgeons.
Marketing savvy gurus?
Or Dr. Vain and Mr. Arrogant?
Dr. Matthew Schulman, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York, is calling out the practice as often unethical.
When doctors can “buy their reputation,” it is patients who lose the most, Dr. Schulman says.
Fees run upward of $3,000 dollars, according to internal messages shared by the surgeon.
“The dirty little secret of the industry: many of those ‘Top Doctor’ lists are composed of doctors willing to pay, not necessarily those who have the skills to be on the list.”
Dr. Matthew Schulman, M.D.
With “no upfront payment required!” and a lean $1,650.00 fee, plastic surgeons could have made the ever-prestigious cut as one of the “Top 10 Doctors to Follow in 2023.”
“We are selling spots in this article for $3,000 each,” a PR agency’s message, shared by Schulman, says.
That article will appear on “IB Times,” to be titled as “Recognizing the Leading 15 Medical Experts.”
According to a host of messages shared twice over the course of several months by Dr. Richard Schulman, the scheme is entirely pay-to-play.
Plastic surgeons (and members of many other professions) simply pay to be listed among some iteration of “The Best,” or “The Top”—doctors, plastic surgeons, lawyers, influencers, etc., and there they eventually appear.
Surgeons don’t even have to appear on lists with other “best-in-class” colleagues, but can bathe in the limelight alone in full feature article format, shared DMs proclaim.
That, of course, is more costly.
“And don’t even get me started on those ‘press releases,’ Schulman says, “that are actually written by the doctor or marketing manager.”