A bitter pill... 11.04.08
I had a bit of a sore
throat last week, but luckily I was in the best place in
the world to have any sort of ailment - I was in
America. You see in America they have cures for
everything, and in fact they seem to have cures for some
things that I didn’t even know existed.
I’m not talking about doctors surgeries or hospitals
here - I’m sure they are doing great work - I’m thinking
more about the advertisements for over the counter
remedies.
Every advertisement break on day-time television seemed
to be for some medicine or another. In fact there were
so many that after about an hour or so you began to
wonder if perhaps you might need some of these things.
That’s the power of advertising of course, but even as I
was wondering about which ailments I might have I also
began to wonder about how crazy it all seemed. |
 |
I mean on one of the news
programmes I watched there was a short piece on the war
on drugs - which obviously meant the illegal type - but
then during the ad break there were about five different
types of drugs advertised.
Okay, so these were legal ones, but it seemed to me as
if they were saying ‘hey don’t be out on the streets
buying that stuff, we want you to buy our stuff
instead.’
And the problem with buying their stuff was that in many
cases the cures they were offering seemed to be worse
than the disease in many of the cases.
Take for instance one advert for pills that claimed to
provide major sinus relief. The whole speel went on and
on about how, if you were to take this drug, how much
relief you would have, how your nasal passages would be
feeling clear and your head all free from that bunged up
feeling.
The advert kinda reminded me of the old carpet-baggers
you’d see on the old westerns who had wee bottles that
cured everything. But then came the guy who does all
those ‘terms and conditions’ bits you hear at the end of
adverts but never really listen to.
And maybe it is okay not to listen when it comes to say
getting a loan to redecorate your kitchen (that said I’d
always advise you to listen!) but it’s different when it
comes to drugs.
Because some of the side effects he mentioned in the
most matter of fact voice he could, included things like
nosebleeds and headaches and nausea. And in one of the
other advertisements I heard there was mention of
leakage, from, well let’s just say parts that should not
be leaking in the normal course of things.
And it was that advert perhaps more than any that made
me sit up and pay attention to the wee bit at the end
when the guy would say “some patients may be affected
by…” |
It also made me begin to
wonder what might be on those wee leaflets in the tablet
boxes that most people don’t read.
You know the wee leaflet things that not only go into
details of the chemical make-up of these drugs, but also
in the tiniest font they can possibly legally get away
with, also list the possible side effects.
So I decided I’d look and sure enough I discovered there
were all sorts of stuff listed on these wee leaflets,
including even in one instance - death.
I suppose if you were dead you wouldn’t have to worry
about whatever ailment you had before and as a cure I
thought it pretty extreme.
In fact all of a sudden my sore throat didn’t seem to be
so bad at all… |
 |
A DROP OF
PORTER is
the weekly
column of
Inishowen
Independent
editor,
Liam Porter. |
|
