I think there's a decent argument that 'bribe' still isn't the most applicable category. The gifts are certainly used as a manipulative tactic, but if their val

I think there's a decent argument that 'bribe' still isn't the most applicable category. The gifts are certainly used as a manipulative tactic, but if their value is trivial and they are given unconditionally, maybe they have more in common with practices like hiring attractive representatives and instructing them to be friendly when pitching a product (and also with ordinary advertisements; part of the point of those free pens is simply to get a name or logo into the doctor's head). They're tactics to give the product a positive sheen and 'earn' some goodwill and familiarity, rather than items of (non-trivial) material value used to incentivise the desired behaviour. edit: I'm thinking of practices like the one referred to in the nyt article -- gift-giving to doctors by drug manufacturers. The top-level comment that started this chain did talk about items offered as part of a direct exchange, which is different.