We know that viewership of network news has declined precipitously in recent years, and the intended audience is primarily those who are currently or soon-to-be elderly. The cash-cow business of pharmaceuticals gloms onto this demographic and saturates the NBC, CBS and ABC nightly news programs with legal drugs for sale. Among the biggest pharmaceutical advertisers are Merck, Inc. and Pfizer.<\/p>\n

But during political season, which is now becoming almost year-round, political ads also saturate news broadcasts. There is a fundamental difference between the pharmaceutical and political ads. With the drug ads, extensive warnings are provided about the associated risks with the product. This is required by law. With the political ads, no cautionary words are provided, and the danger of mis-use is at least as great as it is with the medications.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a wonder that the medications advertised on TV actually turn a profit. The Food & Drug Administration has established regulations<\/a> for advertising that require the sponsors to provide disclaimers about the risks involved with the medication. In many cases, this can consume far more time in the commercial than the reasons to ask your physician to prescribe it for you.<\/p>\n

For example, below is a commercial for Stelara<\/a>, a medication to treat the symptoms of Crohn\u2019s Disease. You\u2019ll note that of the 60-seconds in the ad, 32-seconds are devoted to information about associated risks.<\/p>\n