Sorry - I don't understand your post at all.

I was watching Brian Williams nightly news, national US news. Every single commercial advertisement was for medication.

An advertisement about viagra, Humira, nexium, juviderm, cialis, a local hospital etc.

I missed the first 8 minutes of the news, but seriously every single commercial advertisement was on medication and pharmaceutical companies. EVERY ONE.

The marketing of pharmaceutical companies is outrageous here. My dumb phone autocorrects and misspells many words so I apologize. I was making dinner as I typed and I see it seemed incoherent. Anyway, every single commercial advert was for meds. Every one, and I was beside myself. The marketing set forth for these billion dollar companies seems over the top.

Sorry for seeming like I was incoherent!

I don't watch live TV hardly at all - thank you TIVO!

I could never understand advertisements like this. I mean you and I can't go out and buy this stuff. So why do they advertise like this?

I do remember seeing a Humira advertisement once - young woman hand squeezing an orange then playing soccer with her kid. Really? With RA?

Drug commercials are the worst. Depends on what time of the day they show more. Lyrica annoys me the worst, because every doctor I've had, tries to push it on me. And I do not need it.

And viagra, what the heck? I'm sure if you can't, your wife won't mind. If your that old, who wants to have sex all night long. =)~ ugh viagra and creeking bones. Fun.

Orencia isn't to bad. They show doing everyday things like tying your shoe and walking a dog.

Drugs are big money. The drugs are making us sicker so we can buy more drugs. My husband's drugs for his cancer almost broke us, and he had insurance.

I tape everything, I hate all commercials. I zip through them.

I just got fed up. It's every night. I am most disturbed at viagra, cialis, and the new female "help" in the bedroom meds. I have kids running in the room or sitting with their dad for Pete's sake! It's 6 in the afternoon. Totally inappropriate and I've told my husband we need to stop watching since they broadcast things of that nature so early. I just find it highly inappropriate and am disappointed in the programmings decision to air some of these commercials.

That, and yes, every single commercial was meds. True coaltrain. I cannot buy these, advertise to the docs!

I don't own a television nor have a cable or whatever it is called in my house. that means I don't have the bill also too, I guess, but it's not the money that enthralls me it is the opportunity to control my visual and auditory environment :)

instead of a regular radio, I have a satellite radio that has no commercials.

i don't even like the ads to the left and right of this type box on Daily Strength

or you can try intentional viewing where you make a date to watch something on netflix or taped. that way you don't get the standard american diet of television. you might like it more. and if you don't like it you can always go back

I note that I can see the "ads" on paper in the stupid 100 pounds of crap paper that each biologic has sent me as "presents" diaries, notebooks, glossy fold outs, stupid dvd's of people tripping through wild flowers or doing tasks that folks with burned out joints can not do. i don't read those also. nothing gets picked up in the doc's office because big pharma under writes it all. I bring a kindle there and choose what I want to read.

lion when I go into a waiting room and they have a pre-fed loop on a "television" of solely commercial and continuous medical maladies and their advertisements I write a letter to complain or I use my TV B Gone to shut the unit off :)

write me off list and I'll send you a picture of the re-chargeable unit I have. It looks like an IPOD :) and it is SO much fun.

depot

Tv be gone lol?! So you just shut off the docs tv? Did I understand correctly? If so, that's too funny.

Husband and I watch the local morning news, then he leaves and I turn on pbs cartoons for the kids. No more tv til the evening news, he watches nightly news, and then off all programming. We don't have cable either, and do not watch the evening shows. Instead we purchase movies or series shows we have heard were good, and we pop in a DVD before sleep. We do catch nova or nature sometimes on pbs. So we do in fact limit our media advert exposure and stick to movies we like.

It's the big pharma I'm frustrated with I suppose.

That is why they can come out with a new med for RA.The biologics we take are a big money business. I'm sure our doctors get a kick back from them for prescribing these meds. I'm thankful for the progress they have made with the new meds but doctors make A LOT of MONEY from people with RA. I know the power of advertising. I work for a TV station scheduling the local commercials. The medicine commercials are the big networks like ABC, NBC, CBS. I love PBS they have no commercials.

I always love how they quickly run thru all the side effects or have them in such small print...and usually the side effects are worse than the illiness

I apologize for possibly taking this thread into the realm of politics which is not my intention. I've an academic background in Economics (Masters Level) and have been in advertising for over 25 years. I know how the systems work in the world of business, marketing, finance, insurance, banking, broadcasting, word-smithing, human-herding, spinning, etc. I know how capitalism is the best motivator of large numbers of people to be productive as well as causing our society to progress at an accelerated rate because of the incentives of the system. HOWEVER, there is always, always a point of diminishing returns. It began in the 90's when our representatives in government were pushed by members of the insurance and banking to allow the two previously separate sectors to merge, then when Glass-Stegall was chainsawed in the early 2000's all regulation was gone. When FTC, SEC, Patent Office, Congress and the courts allow drug manufacturers virtually non-ending (at least til profits begin dropping) renewal of patents...each of experiences this personally. Additionally, think the political rhetoric of the '08 and '12 elections....remember "drill baby drill" and "we've got to be freed from foreign oil"? Remember that type of campaign scare stuff? Well, we now are basically an exporter not an importer of petroleum/carbon fuels and have you seen the price of gas drop? NO, you haven't. I couldn't care less your party affiliation, your economic theoretical guru, the costs that we all experience, the massive economic roller coaster rides, monies to improve education, infrastructure, everything , nothing will improve until we begin by breaking up 5 industries acting as monopolies that have bought our political system, our justice system and feed us their propaganda which lionprinc started this thread about. The 5 are Telecommunications, Insurance, Pharma, Energy and Banking. There are others but they'll follow suit when these are done.

Off the soap box, wait, y'all quit believing the rhetoric being fed to us like, "well, without the high price provided us by patent protection these drugs would never have been developed". That's deflective BS. Scientists are going to do what they do whether it makes them wealthy or not....case in point, think of your Docs, good ones treat you when you need but those only wanting a pay check ...well, think you see my point. Now, off the box. Have a good day.

I hate honestly contributing thousands of dollars a month in my use of these meds. I just want to never feel again how I did when I first got sick, but if I had a choice I'd run fast from putting my money into their greedy pockets. Thx for the perspective nonightshades and everyone else.

Nonightshades, great explanatory rant!

Lionprincess, I've noticed the same thing- more and more pharma ads. I wonder what the price tag is for a primetime television ad, or for a three-page spread in "Time" or "The New Yorker" magazines. Patent protection is a huge game. I have a friend who has taken Copaxone (a drug to slow MS) for 20+ years. It's taken as a daily injection. Right as the patent is due to expire there's a brand new, 3x per week formulation. Swell, half the needle sticks, but don't be looking for the price to go down.

Has anyone been following the news about the newest drug to cure Hep C? Much easier than the old regimen, highly successful, one pill a day for 7 weeks. Cost to manufacture: about $350 for the course of treatment. Retail price: $85,000. Yes, that's $1000 per pill. Don't drop one of those suckers in the sink!

I'm grateful for the existence of biologic drugs, and I'm grateful for the co-pay assistance the drug companies offer. However, until the US sees fit to divorce medical care from Wall Street, they have us all over the barrel.

My goodness 85.000? Greed pure greed.
Makes one sick just thinking of it.

Commercials to sell, doctors to prescribe what pharmaceuticals push & in between law suits over some of the same meds advertised.
Now artificial joints, knee replacement advertised. That had my mouth hanging open.

I fully agree No night shades.
So few control so many. These industries get who they need in their back pockets. Only our pockets end up empty.
Shameful & I'm sure corrupt. If we only knew what's really going on behind all those close doors.
I'm also grateful for any meds that will give me quality & relief but do we have to go broke in the process? Thank god for co pay assistance.
Shameful, all of it.
Sammy

I look at these commercials a little differently. I pay attention to how they word things. When you do that you hear 'may help' ' may slow progression' 'we think it works by' 'when taken with xyz it may help' 'while the exact mechanism is does this is unknown' etc..... It's a study in English context that most people ignore.

One of my good friends started her chemistry career working for big pharma. She found another career in medical testing because she claims that working for big pharma was like selling her soul to the devil. They never researched to cure a chronic disease - just to minimize symptoms.

They (big pharma) want everyone to run to their doctors and ask for these medications. They know that the people who watch the news are middle aged and older adults, educated , middle and upper class, mostly white and have private insurance. That is the audience they wish to attract.

You notice how they never run these types of ads during Jerry Springer? That's because most of these drugs are a hassle to get on Medicaid-- if you can get them at all.

Pure marketing strategies.