It is annoying enough that prescription medications can now be advertised directly to the public (my favorites are the ads that don’t identify what the hell the drug is supposed to do, yet urge viewers to “ask your doctor if Adzyrtamil is right for you!”). Now the ads for actual drugs have spawned bait-and-switch ads for supplements. (Otherwise known as “placebos.”)
The first one I saw was for Avlimil. It looks and sounds like a prescription drug ad. The picture of the supplement shows a series of pills in a blister pack that is entirely unlike any supplement I’ve ever seen before, and entirely imitative of prescription drug packaging. The ad promises a revolutionary solution to horniness-deficiency in women. Of course, there is the obligatory tiny caveat These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Only after several viewing of this ad did I look up Avlimil online and find it is just an herbal supplement, not shown to do anything useful at all.
The next ad nearly caught me as well. It began by discussing the epidemic of a condition known as “fatigue.” It made it sound for all the world like fatigue was a newly recognized medical condition, complete with insurance code, which could be treated with a prescription drug. At first I thought this was like the re-imagining of shyness as “social phobia” by SSRI marketers. But no, it was just an ad for another non-FDA reviewed, unproven supplement.
Earlier this week I caught another one, I believe it was not for treating, curing, and preventing memory loss, but ironically I can’t recall for sure.
All these products were dressed up in blister packs, trying to masquerade as effective medicine, not just in the traditional way of playing on people’s hopes and the placebo effect, but by dancing around right on the line dividing marketing from fraud.
As a constant debunker of homeopathy, therapeutic touch, and other medical woo-woo, I am at once royally cheesed off and increasingly cynical about the inability of charlatans to overestimate the gullibility of most people.
Well… in Canada I understand you can advertise either that a certain condition can be treated pharmaceutically, or that you have some wonder drug that does something (ask your doctor about it today), but you can’t say that your drug X cures condition Y. (Thus the Viagra commercials with happy prancing executive types with no information at all).
I do agree with your epidemic of newly discovered “diseases” statement. That “shyness” commercial is the first one I’ve seen, and it surprised me. I mean… oh no! I’m slightly intimidated meeting groups of strangers! Hook me up doc!
Especially that last one. I can cure that problem for less than 5$ a shot. You want it with coke or orange juice?
People CAN be phobic about social situations, but I wouldn’t use a commercial to decide I have such a phobia, no matter what the drug companies would like.
I, for one, think the number of horniness-deficient women in this country is such a huge problem that I’m willing to set aside my distaste for herbalists and holistic healers until this country is back on track with a horniness surplus among females.
[banging shoe on table]
We cannot allow a horniness gap!
[/banging shoe on table]
The current system of (almost) anything goes for marketing supplements is thanks to politicians like Orrin Hatch and Tom Harkin, who are major defenders of the supplements industry and their ability to sell drugs that need not be tested for safety and efficacy.
What’s truly bizarre is that defenders of the current system get completely bent out of shape when the FDA steps in to ban ephedra products after highly publicized toxic and fatal reactions. There is no incentive or need for the supplements manufacturers to pretest their products, so the only option the FDA has is to ban them once the problems have become too overwhelming to ignore (the supplements makers are under no obligation to report side effects and deaths).
Even more bizarre are the large numbers of people who rail against the “big drug companies” without recognizing that supplements are a multibillion dollar industry with huge profits going to (ready?) drug companies who don’t have to spend squat on research and have nothing remotely resembling the major pharmaceutical manufacturers’ budget for quality assurance.
Snake oil…alive and well. Step right up and get your dose.
Oddly- there is a reason for this. If they state wheat the legit drug is supposed to treat, they they have to give a huge warning notice. Otherwise, they don’t. Which is why you see silly ads shilling a drug without saying what it’s supposed to do.
Interesting. It makes sense then - better to just show people frolicking on the beach and playing with their children, without explanation, than have to utter those dreaded words, “May cause anal leakage.”
I for one have recently learned to love this trend for crappy drug comercials. I won two bets today for double green chile cheeseburgers. One was “no that drug is a heart medicine” Bing Bing, Hard on drug. “thats not for Erictile disfunction, its arthritis medicine” double or nothing on the double green chile cheeseburger… Hard on drug.
Now I only have to figure out what to do for lunch 3 days this week.
