Pharmaceutical ads on TV etc - page 2

This is only my opinion y'all. I believe that the drug compainies are money grubbing a-sholes who don't give a hoot about the public. I feel they are taking over the media (TV, magazines,... Read More

  1. by sharann
    Feb 18, '02
    kIDS,
    I remember when "motrin" finally came out OTC! It took years for people to realize that you could take Advil instead of filling that Rx for 600mg etc... I think that the public does have a right to know what meds are out there, I just question the methods and gimmicks they use. I love the free pens and stuff too, but is anything really FREE?
    Momrn, I saw that Viagra ad as well. If only I could dance like that.... Do you notice all the disclaimers on the bottom as Aimee mentioned above? I love when the say consult with you doctor first. How else will the get the drug?
  2. by Brownms46
    Feb 18, '02
    I worked in a GI procedure clinic on contract for 5 months, and after a while I started to notice that just about everyone who came in with c/o heartburn, and GI distress was way overweight!

    And they were also pressuring the docs for NEXIUM, because of the ads they saw! Don't even try to tell them to stay away from offending intakes like sodas, chocolates, caffiene, eating late at nite, or GOD FORBID to LOSE WEIGHT! Just too much work...give me a DRUG!
  3. by mario_ragucci
    Feb 18, '02
    Why are women with herpes genitalis targeted with the drugs for herpes outbreaks? Is it only the adventerous women, who enjoy kaiak-trips out in the forests with boyfriends who drive SUV's, the main people who'd be interested in sex? I must have seen that commercial 100x over the holidaze at my sisters. No one seemed to question it. When I did, her friends looked at me like I was strange to talk about it. They said they see it all the time, but tune it out. Little do they know, my brain is NOT a transistor console with knobs and such! I'm physical. Domo arigoto Mr. Roboto :-)
  4. by colleen10
    Feb 18, '02
    At least now they tell you what the drug is used for. I remember about 7 years ago when I first started to notice the TV ads sometimes they would go into an advertising speil and say the name of the drug but never told you what it was supposed to cure.

    I think the ads empower the public to feel like they have a grasp of their condition and can be proactive in working with their doctor to monitor / treat it. But I can see where you might get some patient's that absolutely postively must have the newest drug on the market.

    Somewhat off the subject, but I really don't like the dancing stomach in the "Heart Break Hotel" ad.
  5. by AZRadRN
    Feb 18, '02
    My fave drug ad of all time- the Meridia commercial that said (quietly, at the end of the ad) "May cause uncontrollable bowel movements" or something like that. Hey, whatever, as long as I lose weight and don't have to do anything drastic like CONTROL what I eat or EXERCISE!! colleen10, the dancing gut freaks me out too!! I think all the ads are a form of brainwashing. Say a drug name enough and people will ask for it.
  6. by mario_ragucci
    Feb 19, '02
    Imagine how whacked out that Meridia commercial is received abroad. Here is a woman, who is obviously over-fed, but yet she takes a pill to enable herself to waste food.
  7. by Andy S.
    Feb 19, '02
    I was just at Olympic Villiage in SLC, Pfizer has an entire display. They are offering free "health assessments". I wonder if all the people in line thought they were getting free Viagra handouts!!! LOL. Later
  8. by aimeee
    Feb 19, '02
    ...I think the ads empower the public to feel like they have a grasp of their condition and can be proactive in working with their doctor to monitor / treat it.
    Maybe the operative words there are "FEEL LIKE". And that is the whole trouble. There is no REAL information about the drugs in these ads. They don't provide information about the condition they are supposed to relieve or provide any instruction about how they work within the body. The possible side effects are fired off at such a machine gun rate as to be completely unintelligible. All the consumer really gets is the name of the drug put in front of them, and some sort of auditory/visual stimuli connected with it to promote a positive association of the drug with symptom relief.

    Knowledge and information are empowering. That is not what is being provided here. These are manipulative tools designed to reach us at our most basic level.

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