I want to talk about drugs Not the street drugs, but the drugs that are advertised on television. I will tell you I didn’t realize how sick I was until I saw these drug ads on TV. If you think you’re healthy and especially if you’re you know over 65 and you think you’re healthy just watch some television for a while and you’ll start wondering if you need to ask your doctor about the plethora of drugs that are advertised. I’m going to give you some numbers. In 2020, 75% of the TV ad dollars were spent on drug ads.
- Good morning, my name is David Gwilt Welcome to another edition of Thoughts 4 the Ages. A little disclaimer before we get started. Since the last vlog I did, I have shaved my beard. And also I had a little eye surgery done. The extra skin up here on the top of my eyes, Medicare was kind enough to pay for that, to have that removed. And while they were at it, I thought I’d have them try to remove some of the bags that were under my eyes So it’s only been about five weeks We’re not totally healed up, but we’re making progress and I’ve been told I look a week and a half younger than I did before.
So that’s all good news. All right this morning, Because I’m recording this. this morning. I want to talk about drugs Not the street drugs, but the drugs that are advertised on television. I will tell you I didn’t realize how sick I was until I saw these drug ads on TV. If you think you’re healthy and especially if you’re you know over 65 and you think
you’re healthy just watch some television for a while and you’ll start wondering if you need to ask your doctor about the plethora of drugs that are advertised. I’m going to give you some numbers. In 2020, 75% of the TV ad dollars were spent on drug ads.
In the mid 80s is when drugs were first allowed to be advertised on TV and ibuprofen was actually one of the first drugs that was advertised. There are about 80 drugs that are advertised on TV today, about 80 drugs and 75% of those however are low benefit, so they really don’t do a lot to improve your quality of life.
But they do a lot to line the pockets of the drug companies Only the United States and New Zealand allow drug ads on television. M and you know most of our drugs that that are sold in this country are made in China and Mexico and I forget there’s in on.e other country, but they’re not The majority of those drugs are not made in the United States And I was watching there was a new Sotyktu. I have no idea what its’ curative powers are.
I have to look them up to see what they’re supposedly for you know I take some medications I take a blood pressure med I think and I take what else or take a cholesterol med I mean now a lot of stuff a baby aspirin for you know keep my blood thinner but the biggest selling drug ever I would have guessed it was you know something for ED. That would have been my guess, but way wrong.
It’s not even in the top five. Humira, I guess, it’s for rheumatoid arthritis. That is the biggest selling drug that they advertise, biggest selling drug of all types, is Humira for rheumatoid arthritis. Now, most of these dollars, most of these ads are directed toward the 65-plus crowd, and that makes sense because most of our medical needs are in the later stages of our lives, not in the early stages. And so they also realize that older Americans watch television more than the younger folks do. Younger folks are busy living their lives and grabbing stuff on podcasts maybe or you know everything that’s on the internet but they’re not sitting around watching a lot of television. Older folks are, they’re more sedentary and
they’re spending more time in front of the tv and so the more I watch these ads the sicker I feel. So I’m like you know maybe I should check with my doctor and I get what’s going on. It’s just like car companies advertise cars. And they don’t actually talk about the car and how wonderful the car is, how long it lasts and the gas mileage. They don’t do that.
They try and give you an image of how you’re going to feel. So you feel young and energetic, and this is how you feel with this car. This is how you watch a beer commercial. You don’t see overweight people with big beer bellies. You don’t see guys with big old beer guts in a beer commercial Everybody is youthful. Everybody looks good. The women are all attractive. The guys are all attractive.
They’re all having fun. No one is isolating and drinking themselves to death in their closet you know, it’s all good times. A and drug companies target that 65 plus crowd. And folks are sitting there watching TV and let’s say they have a little ache in their back or their legs bothering them. They see some ad for restless leg syndrome.
And they go, I have to talk to my doctor, I probably need that drug. And so the direct to consumer ads, the DTC is what they call the direct to consumer advertising for drugs, they put it in your mind that this is what I need.
I need Smith drug. So now you go to your doctor and you say, hey doc, do I need this Smith drug? Because I think I have the symptoms that I hear advertised on television. And the doctor may not even know about the drug.
So he does some research on it. And then maybe a week later, the drug rep comes in, talking to the doctor saying, you ought to get this Smith drug because you know it helps people with you know restless leg syndrome and so now the doctor starts to order some samples and then he gives it to the patient because the patient thinks that they need it and now patient starts taking the drug and says hey doc I feel better so the drug the doc says all must work so he starts prescribing or she starts prescribing this medication to the patients that are coming in with this same symptoms of, in this case, we’re just, for example, saying restless leg syndrome. That’s how the whole game works. So if you put in someone’s mind often enough that this drug will solve this issue and then as a consumer you think, you know, I’ve got a little bit of that issue. Maybe I ought to check this thing out and my life will be better. It’s like driving a certain car, your life is going to be better. Y you buy you wear the certain cologne your life is better You drink the light beer your body looks buffed up. It’s all in the consumers mind of what’s supposed to work. So the point of this whole message is That don’t imagine that you have all these illnesses just because you see a drug advertised for a condition.
And the other thing that concerns me, is some of the, you know, they have to put all these disclaimers in. I mean, they’re required by law to put all the disclaimers in when they talk about a drug. And so they’ll say things like, if you’re allergic to this drug, don’t take it. Well, how the heck do I know if I’m allergic to the drug unless I take it?
Or this drug may cause, and there’s a whole list of things, and hidden in there somewhere is SUDDEN DEATH. You go, oh, yeah, well, probably won’t happen to me. So, you know, I guess I could take that drug. For my money, no. If I think that I have a new ache or pain or something I may go into the doctor and talk to him about it and say okay this is what’s going on you know, what do you think. I don’t go in and say saw this drug advertised on TV this Smith drug and you know I think I need that drug. I think I will feel better. My life will be better. I’ll feel younger and more energetic. My performance will be ‘better’performance, and she’ll be happy too. LOL. You know, you hear all those crazy ads on TV all the time for that stuff. And I just, I laugh every time. It’s like, come on, you know. I guess there’s a so-called sucker born every day. That’s what P.T. Barnum said. And so they keep pushing that stuff. Do yourself a favor. Don’t buy into all the advertising on TV for drugs. The drug companies are getting rich off this stuff. If you really have a medical condition, ask your doctor that you trust about the condition, about the symptoms you’re having, and ask the physician what they suggest. You don’t need to take that brainwashing that you have from the TV commercial into your doctor and say I need this Smith drug and help the drug company sell that. You know you really want to trust your physician and let them decide what’s best for you. You don’t need all the latest and greatest drugs and again keep in mind 75% of the drugs that you see advertised the most on TV have a very minimal beneficial effect. My name is David Gwilt. You can check out all of my information at davidagwilt.com. That’s my website. Please send me a comment if there’s a topic you’d like to hear more about.
And again, this is Thoughts 4 the Ages. Thank you very much for listening. And don’t buy all the advertising that you hear on TV, okay? Do yourself a favor. Stay healthy.
