Saw this ad last night on TV for Reclast, only I was "too busy" to post on it:
Once-A-Year Reclast (zoledronic acid) Injection
It doesn’t
matter whether you’re on-the-go or savoring your solitude—imagine being
able to have a once-yearly treatment for your osteoporosis. Reclast is
the only prescription treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis that
works in just one annual intravenous (IV) dose a year. It’s given by a
nurse or doctor and takes at least 15 minutes. A single dose, along with daily calcium and
vitamin D, helps strengthen your bones and protect them from fracture
for 12 full months.
I’ve posted before on Sally Fields and her wonder over Boniva, the bone density medication taken only once a month instead of once a week. I’m a busy woman, but I sure thought that I would find time to take maybe three more minutes (more like three seconds) to take a pill once a week. Now they’ve dumped Sally in the dirt because someone (who? busy women? greedy pharmaceutical companies?) felt that just was too much time spent on a prescription medication. So they’ve come up with one dose a year. But it’s not about time really, is it…
Spending fifteen minutes (that’s not counting waiting time cause he’s got patients stacked up higher than airline reservations) once a year at the doctor’s office for this miracle IV has frankly got to take up more time than popping a monthly, or even weekly pill. After all, we at the very least take our vitamins every day anyway, and (now this is funny) note the " A single dose, along with daily calcium and
vitamin D…"
No, it’s about two things: One is obviously competition and money. The other I believe is targeting the elderly (over 45 and menopausal) for their tendency to be forgetful.
Though I suppose I can’t really cry "age discrimination" since there’s already a monthly contraceptive patch for the busy, forgetful young movers and shakers who are being persuaded that taking a few seconds to swallow a daily pill might cut into their time for the actual sex that this is all about.
Honestly, I think we’re getting dumber and dumber with each of some of these new and improved, for our own good and busy lives, products. And I think that what I resent most of all is that corporations are making tons of money on convincing us we are getting dumber.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Don’t confuse a marketing message with effectiveness. It doesn’t matter if you’re busy, it matters that you take the pills EXACTLY right. Ever take it with coffee? juice? Dasani water? Or figure 20 minutes is long enough to have breakfast? You might as well have flushed that pill down the toilet. One doctor appt, 15 minutes, and see ya next year. I love it!
It’s good to hear the other viewpoint on the use of some of these drug breakthroughs. I don’t have a problem with the science; I have a problem with the presentation to the public.
Had they stated in their ads as the main point of advantage the effectiveness as you state–and it’s an excellent point, it wouldn’t have caught my eye at all as an insult to our intelligence.
Somewheres in between the concept and the final product, the purpose is lost.