#724 Ejectile Dysfunction

So the other night I was watching 60 Minutes. And during those 60 minutes what amazed me was how many ads for drugs were ejected into the ether.
Direct to consumer marketing by drug companies is the norm these days. And we all know companies buy ads for specific shows. So I guess it should be no surprise these drugs were targeted at aging baby boomers.
I was just amazed at how frequent the ads were.
More frequent, it seems, than the urge to urinate mentioned in so many of the ads.
Of the five ads I saw in the course of the hour, three of them were related to male hydraulics and plumbing—Flomax, Viagra and Cialis. One of the ads was for general allergy relief and one of the ads was for cholesterol reduction.
I always tune in for side effects when I see an ad for a new drug and so when the allergy one came on, I was all ears.
Turns out this new drug, when taken once a day to dry up the symptoms of allergy discomfort, can lead to either glaucoma or cataracts. This disclaimer was stated in a mild matter of fact tone, after painting the sniffles that the medication was meant to reduce in horrible terms of advanced suffering and misery.
So let’s see, sniffles or...BLINDNESS!
I may not be the brightest bulb in the nursery but I don’t think blindness is a preferred alternative to a runny nose.
Although that’s not the worst I suppose. One of the other drugs mentioned casually that one of it’s side effects, in rare cases, is death. So it’s nice to know if things get bad enough I can always administer self-euthanasia with Flomax.
The drug-induced upsurge in ad income attracted the sports division too. Right after the ad for frequent urination and death was the new Viagra approach.
They sponsored the CBS Sports Update with Greg Gumbel. And actually got naming rights as well. It was called the CBS-Viagra Sports Update.
I guess they had to do something to prop up sagging revenues.
America, ya gotta love it.