If you watch network television at all, you're bound to run into a drug commercial or two. Viagra or Cialis (and the infamous twin bathtubs) are shilled during sporting events, Sally Field encourages women to protect themselves from bone loss with Boniva, Brooke Shields can help you regrow your eyelashes with Latisse, and of course, there's medicine to lower your cholesterol, get rid of blood clots or save you from depression.
Legally, the commercials need to be very detailed, and although I'm sure there's risk of heart attack, stroke, paralysis and death when you take almost any medication, it's wholly different when you hear about these risks on television. And of course, there are the embarrassing side effects—and I can't help but wonder how many men experienced an erection for more than four hours before they had to report it as a side effect of taking Viagra or Cialis!
I thought I had seen it all though, until last night. Last night I saw a commercial for Uloric, a drug that can help people with gout. The commercial explains that gout is caused by an excess of uric acid, and to illustrate this, they literally had a man carrying a gigantic beaker of urine all over town—on the bus, on the golf course, etc. Luckily, once he took Uloric, the beaker shrunk into a much smaller flask that he could keep in his pocket(!).
It's one thing to have a blood clot demonstrated on television, but can I draw the line at people carrying urine around? Like people who have gout don't get the picture?
I shudder to see what's next.
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