Prescription Drug Ads on TV Are Horrible

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Here’s the latest from Pollville:

Robert Blendon, the Harvard professor of health policy who oversaw the poll, was surprised. “There’s something about these ads that bother people a lot more than we would have thought,” he said.

I think Blendon needs to watch more TV. Then he’d understand. In any case, I figure that I should always have at least one purely selfish cause that’s unsullied by either principle or rational analysis, so maybe this will become my new one. I can’t say that I’m especially persuaded by any of the actual policy arguments against drug ads, but damn, they sure are annoying. After watching most television programs these days, I feel vaguely crushed by the miasma of terrible diseases that have been assaulting me for the past hour.

On the other hand, I also figure that cell phone companies and the pharma industry are probably keeping TV afloat almost single-handedly these days. Take away pharma, and it might just collapse completely.

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