Being Bombarded With Thousands Drug Ads Aggravating As Hell.

[TheMastersNemesis]

Drug ads dominate the media to the point of absurdity. They are for diseases I never heard of. The drug industry is spending way too much on ads. Patients are paying through the nose for these ads. Reagan really fucked the country when he removed the ban on drug ads. And these ads are partly responsible for the drug epidemic.

[oberliner]

1. Especially prominent on CNN and MSNBC I have noticed

[EarnestPutz]

4. I started keeping track of all the drug ads...

...on network television four months ago. It seemed
like it was just one after another during the early evening
hours. My list now has 47 different drugs that I've seen
advertised and most of them numerous times.
Farxiga
Repatha
Humira
Xeljanz
Cosentyx
Taltz
Trulicity
Symbicort
Prevagen
Eliquis
Entresto
Keytruda
Optivo
Jardiance
Humira (for two different ailments)
Neulasta
Anoro
Harvoni
Brilanta
Ibrance
Prolia
Vanda
Lyrica
Viberzi
Breo
Otezla
Eucrisa
Xarelto
Entyvio
Stelara
Tresiba
Belsomra
Vraylar
Xiidra
Lynzess
Fasenra
Verzenio
Tremfya
Enbrel
Latuda
Victoza
Chantix
Nuedexta
Rexulti
Truvada
Dupixent
Ozempic

Read this list and see how familiar the names are.

I don't watch a lot of television, just the
evening network news really. I watch PBS,
but there are no ads there at all. Don't have cable.
A few years ago there was a drug ad that
said "Ask your doctor if you need (new drug)"
but never mentioned what it was for. This is nuts.
Just read that Europeans don't have this and think we're
crazy.

[The Zephyr]

15. I use Victoza

Their price are robbery. $900 for 9 pens (3 mo supply). And I want a tax credit for their crappy ads too.

[pangaia]

27. Never heard of any of them.

The only advertised drug I use is cialis.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I Think They're Everywhere

Constantly on CNN, Science, AHC, Military History, the other 2 sports networks, MLB, and on over the air channels.

You may be seeing more on CNN and MSNBC, because you watch those the most, but they're ubiquitous.

[oberliner]

20. Good point

Probably right.

[PaulX2]

2. It Is Ransom Paid To Not Do Specials On How Much We Are Being Robbed By PHARMA

If you didn't know.

[Raine]

6. EXACTLY

it's hush money so the "news" will ignore the damage the drugs that advertise on their networks do and won't say anything bad about them.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. I know! It also really gets on my last nerve!

And I agree, they keep telling me I should ask my doctor - or some kind of specialist I've never heard of - for some drug that I'm clueless what it's even for! Shouldn't the prescribing be left to the professionals??

[Raine]

5. I'm so sick of them you see hardly anything else...

There used to be ads for lots of different products but it seems like now big pharma buys up all the time, not leaving slots for anything else.

[PatSeg]

29. I remember when ads were for

laundry detergent, food, and cars. These ads are out of control They are selling disease, not health for the most part and they shouldn't be marketing directly to the patient (consumer). It is unethical.

Interesting side note though, when I see some new and very expensive drug all over television, I do a countdown until the attorney class action lawsuit ads begin. It usually takes six to twelve months. So much for all the smiling faces of the people who "got their lives back" thanks to ______ . "Ask your doctor if _____ is right for you."

Remember all those ads for roll-on testosterone replacement drugs? The side effects were unnerving, but the man was SO happy. Then all of sudden they were gone!

[Vinca]

7. Totally agree. They drive me nuts. The average television watcher does not have the knowledge

to prescribe anything beyond an aspirin for themselves. Another thing that bugs me are the cute, abbreviated, "new" names for diseases. "MBC" is the clear winner in that category. Who doesn't want a catchy name for their metastatic breast cancer?

[ProfessorGAC]

9. My Wife Just Commented On That Yesterday

She noted that half the commercial is dedicated to the side effects. She's right.

[Dave Starsky]

12. What I've always found most amusing about pharma ads...

Is how they ALWAYS show people grinning, laughing, dancing, etc., while the announcer states, in a calm and upbeat voice, how side effects may include severe rectal hemorrhaging and death. Oh, and tell your doctor if you experience seizures while taking their drug.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Or Suicidal Thoughts

Yeah, someone having suicidal thoughts is sure to consider calling the doctor as their first option.

Right.

[Dave Starsky]

21. Suicidal thoughts seems to be a very common side-effect.

Maybe the drugs are killing the patients, and the companies are staging them as suicides.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. It Sure Does

A commercial for a psoriasis drug includes that in their disclaimer.

[Dave Starsky]

34. Weird.

Well, they DO call it "The Heartbreak of Psoriasis".

[blaze]

10. I'm seeing Crown Royal and Johnnie Walker ads!

I can't remember the last time I saw ads for hard liquor.

[Dave Starsky]

13. Amazingly, this was more-or-less a self-imposed ban...

That lasted more than fifty years. The refusal of hard liquor ads was NOT something that was foisted upon TV stations by government. I think there might have been a requirement that if a liquor ad airs, 70% of the viewership of the program has to be over 21, but that was it.

Last year, the NFL agreed to accept hard liquor ads during their telecasts, but they are limiting the number that they show to a few per game. Expect to see a lot more of these ads in the future.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Ted Danson's Doing Smirnoff

And they're pretty funny spots.

Mila Kunis is doing Jim Beam.

I also see the Hennessey ads quite frequently.

[VOX]

11. And at whom are those ads directed? Shareholders?

Because how many patients/consumers are asking their doctor if “ccxdssg” right for them today? I’ll wager not many.

Are the ads aimed at doctors, as a way for pharma to get in through the door without actually getting in through the door?

Apparently, these ads just EXIST. They’re territorial markers. They are there in the way that conquering cultures set up new and expanded boundaries.

[Dave Starsky]

14. As someone noted above, they are payola to the networks.

To keep them from running stories on how their products fuck people up and have led to a great deal of serious problems in our country.

[HAB911]

18. I've worn the label off my mute button

If they stopped the ads, could the price of drugs come down?

[CanSocDem]

19. Watch them at your own risk.

Advertising has come a long way. And while people may think they are watching a promotion for a cure, what they are really getting is a confirmation and encouragement for ill health. They are selling dependency on the industry with this message:

You are living in a dangerous, depressing and unpredictable world. We can make you feel better.

That's why discussion about social justice and public health ends before it begins. Americans can't get past their own personal sense of doom.

K&R

.

[leftyladyfrommo]

23. I always pay attention to the list of side effects.

I would have to be on death's doorstep to take most of that stuff.

[MineralMan]

24. Some of those drugs are relatively new classes of drugs.

The ones advertised for things like psoriasis, chrohn's disease and some other auto-immune disorders are immune system suppressants. They lower your body's immune responses. The side effects are due to the drug lowering the body's ability to fight off infections, and they can be deadly at times.

Then, there are the medications for use after chemotherapy. Most of those are white blood cell (granulocyte) production stimulators. The root drug for that has been around for quite some time, but new variations on it have been introduced by big pharma. They have some pretty heavy duty side effects, including spleen ruptures and other very, very serious ones.

There is a big crop of new drugs for treating diabetes, too. I haven't looked into those in much depth, but most appear to be longer-acting than previously available drugs. The risk of low blood sugar levels from these is the main issue, since they stay in the system longer than the previously-used similar drugs.

There are also some new cancer treatment drugs that are new to the market. Breast cancer and certain lung cancers are their main targets. None are curative, but they have the benefit of giving people with terminal cancers a little longer before they die. How much longer? A few months at best.

All of these drugs are hugely expensive, as is typical of new drugs on the market. In most cases, older drugs are available that do pretty much the same things. But, selling very, very costly drugs is profitable for the pharma industry, so there it is.

The ads are designed to get patients to ask about the new drugs the next time they see their doctor or specialist. For the serious conditions they are designed to treat, doctors are quite likely to say, "Well, we could try that." Other ads, which appear in popular medical journals for those specialties, target the physicians. The goal, of course, is to sell drugs at enormous profits.

[Mariana]

30. Many people believe newer drugs

are always better than the older ones. They believe new drugs wouldn't be approved if they weren't more effective than whatever was already available, and that they're being ripped off if they don't get the very latest new treatment. Big Pharma knows this, of course. There are also plenty of people who still think generic drugs are second-rate and inferior to the expensive brand name drugs.

[MineralMan]

31. Yes. It's not true, of course, but that's what they're selling.

Some new drugs work better, and a few didn't exist before. Most, however, are just slight variations on older drugs that have gone generic.

Personally, I would like to see all consumer advertising for prescription medications go away. Let the doctors prescribe.

[Mariana]

32. They only have to work better than a placebo to be approved.

I'd like to see the ads gone, too.

[pecosbob]

25. I stopped visiting the Huff Post's website because of all the pharma adverts.

[Afromania]

26. Tell your doctor about this new and great drug to treat your WebMD diagnosed disease.

It'll do wonders to help you live a normal life! (in small text - until it either makes you blind, deaf, eats your kidney or makes your heart stop)

[c-rational]

28. The drug ads are I believe big Pharma's way of getting out of lawsuits and should be prohibited.

Imagine in a courtroom being asked if you ever saw the ad with all its disclaimers...what could you say...I live under a rock. The AMA and Pharma are not interested in good health, they are interested in curing diseases. That means they are not interested in prevention. I suggest watching "What the Health" a movie on Netflicks - it helped open my eyes.

[Archae]

33. The supplement industry has jumped on the bandwagon too.

I keep seeing that supplement supposedly to help your memory, made out of a jellyfish.
(I think that's what it's made out of...)

But the worst of the worst, prescriptions that is, are those ads for a drug to treat bipolar disorder.
Shows a person in a manic state but take our pill and everything will be all hunky-dory!