Prescription Drug Ads on TV Are Horrible

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


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.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate