Gary Horton | Take a Pair of Commercials, Call Me in the Morning
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Ignoring his slow-motion destruction of the Department of Health and Human Services, we can still give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. his tiny due: He’s promoted two things everyone can applaud — cleaning up America’s food supply and cutting out the mind-numbing, manipulative pharmaceutical advertising that floods our lives.
We’ve all suffered through it — ads more painful than the diseases they claim to treat. During this year’s MLB season, I could barely enjoy a Dodgers game without being emotionally waterboarded by commercials featuring brave, trembling souls with Alzheimer’s. There they are — hugging loved ones, talking about early intervention, whispering, “It may be Alzheimer’s.” Each commercial carefully crafted to surgically implant doubt: “Wait, do I forget names sometimes?” Cue the fear. Cue the test. Cue the expensive, dubious drug. Cue the billing to Medicare. It’s brilliant marketing — and a total invasion of private peace.
Forget Alzheimer’s for a moment, so to speak. You, me, and the fencepost are hammered daily with warnings that we might have Parkinson’s, depression, obesity, sleeplessness, erectile dysfunction, high blood pressure, skin disorders, or cancer risk. Watching sports has become an endurance test all its own: nine innings of baseball, three hours of football, and any of 75 drug ads diagnosing our demise.
And always the........





















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