The C___a commercial was playing. They came to the side-effects warning. The announcer went on and on and on. The smiley, happy portion extolling the virtues of this antidepressant was actually shorter than was the litany of negative things that might happen, or had been known to happen in rare cases.
"Oh, man!" I said. This stuff will kill you in thirty-nine different ways, but dang! You will feel better while you are dying!"
BBBH is a believer in these warnings. I was witness to her conversation with her primary care physician about that very thing. He really was annoyed; he could hardly keep his cool. Those warnings made him so angry he could scarce contain himself. Well, I wonder why that is.
Now I reveal the troglodyte within me. I hate, hate, hate with a purple passion the advertising of pharmaceuticals on the airwaves and in the print media. (There oughta be a law.)* I am also less than fond of the advertising by lawyers who prey on people who have been "injured" by one of the drugs advertised. (There oughta be another law.) I really like the "If you or someone you know has ... ... experienced death..." line. Does anyone else see a vicious cycle here?
Yes, I know how annoyed the television industry would be with people who think as I do.
Or maybe I have become such a curmudgeon that everything annoys me these days.
(If you has [sic] experienced death, call a lawyer.)
*I am not one who believes government should control our lives. But where are the ethics?
5 comments:
Curmudgeon, no. Rightly concerned? Yes!
Just the other day in a news story about increased prescription drug usage advertising was cited as one of the causes. People see the adverts and go to their doctors and say 'I want that'. And of course what doctor is going to say NO. I see those adverts and say 'No way, Jay'...
A very long time ago I worked as a legal proofreader and one case I worked on had the line "there were some side affects, including death". The whole case was so disturbing to the night crew that we refused to work on it. So what were they going to do - fire over 25 people? That case was designated "day staff only"....
It has been years since the media won their campaign to advertise prescription drugs to the public. Foolish then. Foolish now.
The ads are annoying and people buy in because they want medicine to fix everything. Too bad we can't pay for TV programming with no advertisements. We do pay for a zillion channels (exaggerated more or less- well, more), but over thirty percent of each hour is taken up with advertising.
Shelly, thanks. We should all be concerned. Responding from Buffalo, TX.
Grace, I am very impressed. A group of 25 who will stand in solidarity for something in which they believe. Awesome. No, seriously; it really is.
Chuck, it seems these days that any attempt to raise the issue of ethics elicits a response like "What ticks?"
Vee, yes, indeed. Take this pill to fix that, take that pill to counter the ill-effects of this, and on and on.
I may be wrong, but I think that with your flipper and attention to the tv you could maybe watch a continuous hour of commercials without any programming to interrupt.
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