Now I'm not making fun of the people who need these medications. Some people do have serious problems (although it's REALLY hard not to laugh at the people in the twin bathtubs at the end of the Cialis commercials--have you ever laid in one of those?? They aren't that comfortable!) that require strong forms of medicine. What I AM going to make fun of, though, are the narrations.
It's really hard not to, if you think about it. Here's a man and his wife--we'll call them Bob and Ethel-- walking hand-in-hand down the beach while their dog runs to grab a tennis ball, while the narrator, in a very serious tone, reads off the list of possible side effects of whatever drug Bob has been taking. While Bob smiles and throws the ball again (in slow motion, of course), the narrator talks about how Bob's spleen might explode out of his ears, or he might start growing toenails on his eyelids. As Chester (the dog) fetches the ball and runs back towards Bob and Ethel, we learn that Bob has a chance of growing a third eyeball in the middle of his forehead, or his nose might rot off in the middle of the night. Ethel, meanwhile, is happy as she can be because she has her ol' Bob back from whatever disease was ailing him, none the wiser that he might spontaneously combust in the middle of the night or wake up as a woman. I always wonder, does the other person in the commercial know about the drugs side effects?
It is necessary to understand what prescription drugs can do beyond their intended usage, and kudos to the people who make these commercials that they make the narrator read off the side effects in an intelligible manner (probably because they've had the pants sued off them by someone who developed glow-in-the-dark kidney stones and wasn't warned this was a possible side effect). But watching Bob and Chester play fetch on the beach, while hearing that Bob is at risk of ebola, is just…well…ridiculous.
Until next time, dear readers…read the fine print!
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