Becoming reacquainted with America after so many years abroad is sometimes a daunting challenge. Finding ways to bridge a seventeen year time-warp isn’t always easy and frequently results in a certain amount of incredulous head-shaking; that “I can’t believe this is really happening” gesture intended to dispel a dream and verify reality. Over the past months I’ve had a few of these head-shake moments, most related to television.
Admittedly, I’ve never been a television-watcher. Other than the occasional spectacle such as the Olympic Games, a significant natural disaster or benchmark political upheaval, I’ve never been comfortable idling in front of the TV’s mindless chatter or being absorbed into programming that cues when I’m supposed to laugh. Television is, however, a reflection of the culture and so I’ve recently watched some in the hope of scaling the years I’ve been away and catching up on my homeland. The results have been amazing.
I’m not sure television programming merits the time and effort it takes to write a blog, but the commercials certainly do. While television programming hasn’t dramatically changed over the years advertising has, and it depicts some intriguing cultural shifts.
Local programming remains littered with the amateurish ads for car dealers and furniture stores, but national advertising is pre-occupied with drugs. Recently, within the course of a one hour program, I viewed no less than five separate ads for five different medications, each admonishing us viewers to “talk to our doctor” and find out if they’re “right for us”. And these ads aren’t just on certain programs, they’re on every prime-time program and the list of maladies and medications they hawk seems endless. I quickly forgot about the actual programming because the medication ads had me on the edge of my chair wondering if I needed it or wanted the “better life” it offered.
Each begins the same; a troubled look, anxious demeanor, furrowed brow, deep sighs of concern. Symptoms flash across the screen in time to a peaceful melody in the background. Once the stage is set, the important part is next. A monotone voice suddenly, dramatically drones on at a rapid pace about side-effects, contraindications, possible drug interactions, danger signs and serious warnings, in a manner similar to the interest rate disclaimers at the end of a credit card ad. Just as I discover I’m holding my breath and I’m about to close my eyes in terror, the soothing voice returns once again. Now the screen is filled with smiling faces playing in the park, walking hand-in-hand without a care in the world, while in the background a last warm and tender admonition encourages me to “ask my doctor”. Thus, a better life through chemistry is available to everyone.
Frankly, I’m at a loss for words to describe my utter distaste for such blatant pandering to human emotion and fear. These despicable vignettes prey upon our worse fears and insecurities, seemingly providing slick and easy answers to serious, and in many cases chronic, health problems. Some ads unabashedly target the aged who are most susceptible to the subtle fears they raise or the false hope they imply. Worse, they undermine medical practice by imparting superficial and incomplete knowledge to uninformed patients who then question the competence and integrity of physicians who refuse to prescribe them. Patient education is a good thing; pharmaceutical salesmanship thinly disguised as valuable health information is not.
Even more disconcerting is the cost of these ads, both the development and airing. Most are well presented with obviously professional actors and attractive settings, and they run during prime-time in some of the costliest advertising slots. Perhaps this is one of the reasons medications in the US are dramatically more expensive than just about anywhere else in the world and a primary contributor to our unconscionable healthcare costs. While pharmaceutical companies justify higher US medication prices with the cost of research and drug approval protocols, I’m not a believer, particularly when I see purposeless, exorbitant advertising solely for the purpose of creating brand recognition.
In my view pharmaceutical commercials for prescription medications should not be permitted on television, at any time under any circumstances as they are not products patients themselves can purchase and they create hidden consumer costs. If there ever was a contraindication for medications, prime time TV is it.
