There’s something about music that clings to my brain. Sometimes, while riding in the truck with my husband, Ken, I hear a classic, country song on the radio that reminds me of a time years ago. For example, my childhood, cowboy hero, Gene Autry, singing “Be Honest with Me.” I enjoy its repeating over and over again in my head.
Lately, I’ve been muting the extraordinarily, choreographed, TV commercial for a prescription drug used for type 2 diabetes. I’m trying to avoid that music replaying in my mind.
It’s the proliferation of TV ads for prescription drugs that gets under my skin. The pills and shots are expensive–I wonder how much of their price goes for advertising. After hearing the side effects enumerated, I think the condition must be dreadful to make a person consider taking the medication to relieve it.
I dislike their audacity, “Ask your doctor.” I consult a physician for his judgment coming from a combination of his education, experience and expertise. I’m not looking for him to rubber stamp my TV and internet knowledge.
For several years, jingles were prevalent in TV ads but I hadn’t noticed any lately. Many of the bygone tunes such as the Hamm’s beer commercial, “From the land of sky-blue waters,” or “I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener” are still etched in my memory.
Apparently. writing the little rhymes for TV was quite lucrative. When I watched the sitcom, “Two and a Half Men,” from 2003 – 2015, Charlie, who owned a Malibu beachfront house, was a piano player who made his fortune as a jingle writer.
Some of the early TV sponsors such as cigarettes have been banned because they’re hazardous to our health. Many of the prevalent advertisers seem to be drugs and attorneys who file class action lawsuits for people who have been harmed.
Do you pay attention to TV ads?