There are tons of pharmaceutical ads on TV these days, and
many of them are for medicines that can have some nasty side effects, including
death. At least they have to mention these side effects in the ads, but do they
have to make it sound so bad that you might die? Surely there’s a way to spin
possible death positively, right?
Like, for example, they could list all the other nasty side
effects first, and then say the drug also may cause death, but if it kills you,
at least you won’t get the other nasty side effects. And if you’re dead, you
won’t be suffering from that health issue you’re taking the drug for anymore
either: so it really cured it after all, just in an unexpected way! Plus, if
you’re dead, all your problems are at
an end! So then can’t they honestly say that their product may solve all your
problems for you, forever? And doesn’t that sound more desirable than just a
generic warning that the product may cause death?
In advertising, you can’t just warn someone that something
could kill them: then they might not ever want to buy it! An ad should make the
possible down side look good: then everyone will want it!
(BTW: I’m obviously joking here. But did you notice that the
ads warn that the medications “may cause death”, as opposed to saying: “it
might kill you”? That’s a nice manipulative way of saying it, because if it may
“cause death”, who knows who or what that death may happen to? It didn’t
specify it would be you, so no worries, right? {Hmm, I wonder if patients
taking these drugs will ever find out about the deaths that were caused by them
taking the drug? And how does that work, anyway: does it make patients send out
subliminal mind-control signals to others, making them into killers, or making
them die? How are the deaths that may occur caused, and to whom do they happen?
Why won’t they tell us?})
