How did we get to the point where prescription drug ads are so frequent and invasive (and stupid)?
Is anybody besides me bothered at all by the 5 minute mini-infomercials touting them that seem to be on every station , at all times of the day and night? I must be old. I just don't get it. Its either age or I must be stupid. I'm not a doctor nor am I a pharmacist. I'm not a nurse, I don't have a medical degree. Hell, I can't even pronounce most of the names (the chemical names) that these drugs are made of. What is the purpose of these ads anyway?
Is it to make me a better informed patient? How?, When I know basically just enough pharmacology to be dangerous when medicating myself in the first place and couldn't tell the difference between any two of them on the shelf if I tried?
Is it to make me a healthier person? How? Again, is it through education, or am I just to assume that my doctor somehow needs my help in determining which drug to prescribe for me?
By show of hands , how many people who read this have ever read "Health" magazine? (That's the one in the doctors office where the ad for the drugs is always referenced, so you can read up on your favorite prescription, as in " Read more about this drug in our ad in Health magazine")
The side effects are scary enough and the list is always 15 seconds long when they talk through them. May cause nausea, headache,chest pain, vomiting, diarrhea, blindness, stroke, ......Hello?
Anybody ever heard of Vioxx? or Thalidomide?
Look up these drug names and you'll see what I mean. All of them were heavily touted by drug companies and all of them are scary and proven dangerous to patients in one regard or another.
-
Tysabri
-
Vioxx
-
Zoloft
-
Celexa
-
Paxil
-
Natrecor
To name just a few. 2 minutes on the internet and I found 8 Million English pages on this subject.
Sometimes it is the drug, sometimes the side effect, and sometimes the lack of a safeguard in a small number of patients that causes the problem.
I heard one the other day that said you should always have a change of clothes with you if you take this one diet drug due to the potential for "anal leakage". What the hell? That means if you take this diet assisting weight loss drug , you may at some unforeseen point, crap your pants explosively without warning. Can you imagine? You are sitting in a meeting, when all of a sudden you think you've got gas, "bbbrrrumppphhh"- pants load !!! How would you get out of your chair to get to the bathroom to clean your self up? Wouldn't you leave a trail out of your pants legs as you walked from the room? And this drug is a good thing? I mean , I would probably be proud of it at first ( I am a male) , but does anyone besides me think that a 36 hour erection is a problem? I heard that one while watching a commercial for one of those erectile dysfunction ads. Every single one of them says to ask your doctor about "insert name of drug".
I'll bet doctors hate these ads. I know I do. I hate what they do and how they are made. I resent the constant assault. The mute button is my best friend.
Does anyone have anywhere near the existence that these people in the ads do? In every single one of the ads for diet drugs the people are already thin. What in the hell do they need weight loss medication for? Has anyone ever walked along a street in a big city late at night window shopping and the urge to have sex with your wife crossed your mind at that instant? If it did , was she agreeable or did you get told "Are you nuts, we'll get mugged out here". Have you ever driven a car in the country with the top down, and with doves flying over head , while classical music played in the background all while thinking about your cholesterol? Oh and just to answer the question, No fat burner pill is ever worth $153 a bottle just because some butt monkey ass-wipe on TV said so.
Here's what I think.
Money talks in this country. If it didn't then Viagra wouldn't sponsor a NASCAR race car.
I have no qualm with being a better informed patient, but I do not agree that I or anyone else needs to be inundated with ads about "MyCoxaflopin".
If the drug companies were trying to better inform us then the explanations and side effects and contraindications would not be written by lawyers in teeny tiny small print and they would publish the explanations in a main stream publication, like Readers digest in plain English that is easy to read, understand and comprehend, instead of in some special interest magazine for health professionals.
They always cover themselves with a blanket statement about consulting your doctor before taking any medications , etc. This is about as disingenuous as those numb nuts who make the TV series "Jackass" , saying that these stunts are performed by trained professionals and don't try this at home. Does anybody in their right mind think Johnny Knoxville or Steve-O is a trained "professional".
More marketing genius from pinheads with degrees in promotion.
And we put up with this crap.
Thankx- bigmike
posted from "The Rant from bigmike" at
Take a second and check out my new business at
