Have you ever noticed how the big pharmaceuticals constantly peddle their latest drug offerings in slick TV commercials? Of course you have. Time magazine recently reported that the big Pharmaceuticals spend about $5 billion per year on their drug pitch, and every $1000 they spend yields an average of 24 new prescriptions. Watch any evening news show and you will be bombarded by one drug pushing company ad after another.
The template for the typical drug ad always shows an actor playing the role of the patient, usually in a sublime natural setting, walking on the beach with a dog or children, firing up the barbecue on a quiet Saturday evening, adrift on a daisy covered hill with a toddler. The hidden message is that in order to continue to go about your life like this you need this drug.
And the names of the drugs themselves, cooked up in some drug name brainstorming session and undoubtedly vetted by focus groups of target consumers, are equally insidious. We get "Abilify," coining a new word that seems to indicate we will gain some new ability by taking this drug, or on that same tack, we get a bladder control drug dubbed "Enablex" so well be able to pee in a more timely manner. On and on they come, lined up like the bald headed bankers that used to be in your foyer hawking home loans. (The drug of easy money for nothing down and low easy monthly payments!)...Lunesta and Ambien compete to put us to sleep, Cymbaleth, Lipitor, Vytorin, Seasonale, Zoloft, not to mention the ubiquitous Viagra and Cyalis ads.
One of the most chilling things about these "wonder drugs" is the list of incredible side effects rattled off by the the dummy patient actor as they amble through the woods--dry mouth, trouble breathing, hearing loss, blindness, dizziness, balance issues, and then the matter of fact references to heart attacks, stroke, and even death! Listen closely to the list of potential side effects and you'll much rather stay with the condition the drug is supposed to cure! And some of the maladies the drugs take aim at seem to be equally concocted in the same brainstorming session that came up with the name: restless leg syndrome? Yes, all products aim to define a problem and then present themselves as the solution or cure, but honestly, popping pills for your toe tapping habbit is a bit much.
Is it any wonder that some lawmakers are considering legislation to rein in this ad blitz, now gleefully aimed at our aging population of Baby Boomers. They want to ditch the tax write-off for these drug ads and make Big Pharma pay for the privileged of ramming their Flomax and Aleve down our throats on nightly TV. Fat chance. The drug companies will be sure to buy off enough Senators or Reps to prevent that, and then make sure to defeat the "lawmakers" who came up with the idea in the first place. Ain't democracy wonderful?
Well... I'm still waiting for the first ad for "Soma." Oh Brave New World...
