One of the peculiarities of US culture is that we have advertising for various medicines and treatments on the television, especially during news shows for the elderly among us. I don’t know how many other countries have this, but it’s weird – it’s not like people can go out and buy these medicines on their own, which means they have to pester their doctors for them. I wonder how the doctors feel about this.
In any event, I’ve gotten used to the style – the ad tells a little soap opera-esque story, implying that good feelings and times will accompany the use of the product. Or you’ll be able to do more of what you lkike because you’re using their miracle product.
Invariably the clothes people are wearing or the rooms they’re in or props featured in the commercial will feature PRECISELY the same two-color scheme they’re using to brand the product, so you’ll associate those colors with the product in a Pavlovian way. I get it. I’m not stupid.
But I saw something different recently.
A medicine called ATTRUBY has featured ads narrated by Morgan Freeman – God Himself! . He appeared in the first ad, which seemed to tell the heartwarming story of a retiring science teacher. He actually appeared onscreen, not merely as a narrator. The product’s name comes from its use in treating Adults with TRansthyretin-mediated amyloidosis CardioMyopathy, or ATTR-CM.
The latest commercial has Morgan Freeman attending a sort of Beekeeper’s get-together, which shows him andothers in beekeeper outfits with smokers, havesting beehives. And melting down the wax and pouring it into jars with wicks suspended i them to make jar candles.
Which are labeled “A True Bee”. It’s a verbal pun on the medicine’s name, ATTRUBY = A True Bee. I never saw anybody use wordplay before.
Freeman’s presence in the commercials makes you wonder if maybe he has the condition. He doesn’t, although he’s had some heart issues and Fibromyalgia.
Did you notice that Morgan Freeman says in some of those commercials, “Get busy living?” That’s a reference to a famous line from The Shawshank Redemption, “Get busy living or get busy dying.”
That’s a weird thing I’ve noticed about prescription drug ads on TV. Some advertise meds for relatively obscure conditions - as though the afflicted wouldn’t already be seeing a specialist for their illness and been briefed on current treatments. “Gee doc, how about prescribing Attruby?” “Wow, I never heard of that one before! Thanks for letting me know! I’ll call it in right away!!”
Speaking of (semi)-hidden reminders about the drug in the body of the ad: there’s one I see for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (which has been rebranded “metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)”, due at least in part, one suspects, to negative connotations of “alcoholic” and “fatty”). There’s a heavily advertised drug called Rezdiffra, with the ad featuring a, um, somewhat portly lady who has an unspecified job in a middle or high school and is shown interacting with students. At one point, she seems to be attending a pep rally at which a student is holding up a sign in the background which says “Rezdin”. Why that, one wonders. Is “Rezdin” an official cheer for the basketball team? Or, oo, a really subtle way of hyping the drug.
Most of the drug ads I see accompany '70s TV repeats. They must figure that the audience includes lots of recovering schizophrenics or depressives, because there are ads on heavy rotation for drugs to treat tardive dyskinesia (involuntary movements that may be side effects of drugs such as Haldol and some antidepressants). A relative typically keys in sufferers about their condition. “Honey, your face and eyes are doing those funny movements again.” “Shut up, bitch, and mind your own business”.
Curiously, a side effect of anti-TD meds is, you guessed it, involuntary movements.
From what I’ve heard, physicians in general are not fond of TV ads for prescription drugs, in part because they get pressured to prescribe new, expensive meds that may not work any better than older ones available in generic form.
One of the very few positive initiatives proposed under MAHA and RFK Jr. is banning prescription drug ads on TV. I’m all for it, but don’t expect it to happen any time soon. Drug companies strongly resist any serious attempts to stop that form of advertising.
IIRC it’s illegal pretty much everywhere except the US and, for some reason, New Zealand, though I don’t recall seeing any there. You can only really advertise over-the-counter stuff in most places.
As just mentioned, only the US and New Zealand allow this sort of advertising. And the reason for this direct-to-consumer advertising for a product the person cannot get other than thru their medical provider is that’s the only way to penetrate the market. In the olden times the pharmaceutical companies would advertise directly to the docs, by way of company representatives cozying-up to them and taking them out to steak dinners, free vacations to the Caribbean to attend the company’s conference, etc. Clearly, major conflicts of interest were in play, and most physicians groups, hospitals, insurance companies, and anyone else that employs doctors started prohibiting that sort of graft.
Now, the only way to get the word out about your product is to push it on TV with popular actors, colorful outfits, memorable jingles, and making promises about wonderful health and beauty and living a well-adjusted future with this product, and yeah, pester your doctor about it! Evidently, it must work to some degree, because the ads are persistent, and those companies make bank off these products.
Not famous enough that it’s stuck with me in the decades since I saw it, but I’m bad at remembering stuff like that.
OTOH, I remember the concluding line “make the most of living if you’re not prepared to die” from the Herman’s Hermits mid-1960s hit “This Door Swings Both Ways.” Same idea.
There’s a commercial for a drug psoriatic arthritis drug brand-named Tremfya, that has as a tagline “emerge tremfyant”. Seems like there’s yet another verbal drug pun out there too, but I can’t think of it right now.
The part that gets me is most of the time they don’t say what the drug is for. “Ask your doctor if Hyponix is right for you.”
Okay… Does it keep me from getting pregnant, cure shingles, lower my blood pressure, reduce edema, or any of a host of things there are drugs out there for.
As I understand it, they’re not allowed to say what it’s for unless they also list all of the side effects in the same ad. So you get two kinds of ads: The really vague ones that, at best, just sort of generally hint at what it might be for, and the ones that have someone talking fast about “Side effects may include extreme agony, suicidal thoughts, internal organ liquification, testicular atrophy, and death”.