Off The Cuff

Who Should Be Advertising Prescription Meds On TV?

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, What Were They Thinking? on Jan 25 2008

Welcome back!

Recently, there was an interview by Diane Sawyer asking if a celebrity should be peddling prescription meds on television. Usually, the answer would be “why not?”. But in this case, there are a number of questions about it. What am I talking about? The prescription med Lipitor is being endorsed by Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the artificial heart.

Now, you would think that Dr. Jarvik would have a clue about such things, right? Hmmm. Ever since I saw him on the commercial the first time, I thought that he would be one of the best endorsers of such a product since he knows what he’s talking about. Didn’t you think that too? Yep, thought so. However, Dr. Jarvik is an inventor, not a physician. In fact, he is not a medical doctor at all.

That was strike one. Then, when he did the interview with Ms. Sawyer, he was somewhat evasive with his answers, some he did not answer at all. It seems that despite on the commercial, his endorsement included that he SAID he took the product, he did not start taking the med until about 30 days after the commercial was airing on the television. That makes him a liar!! Apparently, he then got an idea that he should talk to his doctor and try it himself. If he is such a liar, why would anyone believe anything he’s saying now?

That was strikes two and three as far as I am concerned. Now, I believe that the product is probably really good but I will not take their word for anything at all since they had that guy endorsing a product that, not only, he did not take himself but is no more knowledgeable about than the average person on the street.

So, the question is…should celebs that are seen as being authorities on the subject..when they are not…be able to endorse a product without question? I don’t think so. Too many people are likely already taking this man’s word for something that he might know about now that he takes it himself but did not know a thing about when he made the commercial. If the company did not know this, fine, but I believe they did know enough about him to know whether he was a real authority on this subject or not. Bad news here. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

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