Have you noticed the happy people who use a particular new brand of antidepressant or asthma medication in the multitude of television commercials broadcast each evening during network news programs? Or those who smile as they walk slowly along, perhaps slightly stooped from their osteoporosis — happy at the way Company A’s new Wonder Drug B allows them to remain active?
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the value of modern pharmaceuticals. I’m fairly sure there are thousands, maybe even millions of people, who are living better lives because of drug breakthroughs over the last few decades. My wife and I (especially as we get older) cheerfully line up for flu shots each year and appreciate the opportunity.
But what really bugs me about ALL new medications and/or supplements, from Xanax to Xerox and from pronexin to pro football, the manufacturers all expect you to put on a happy face — while they soothingly read a list of possible side effects that may range from sore toes to heart attacks.
Clever marketers, those drug companies. They are required, usually, by federal law to warn people about possible risks and side effects from their products. But, of course, they would NEVER sell any of their lotions and potions if they advertised with a couple of paragraphs describing how the product is supposed to work then three full television screens of bold-faced “WARNING! WARNING! POSSIBLE DANGER!” signs.
By the time they show grandma and grandpa biking happily through the woods with the grandkids as they quietly recite the possible side effects and risks, why, you’ve not really paid attention to all that stuff anyway, have you?
Yes indeed. They really know how to do marketing!