OCT 16 - 31, 2004

VOL. 2 ISSUE 20

OCTOBER 21, 2004 – Let’s put aside the fact that these stupid pharmaceutical company ads are a big part of what is driving up health care costs in the country.  It was a stupid idea to allow companies to advertise drugs only a doctor can prescribe, and it should never have gotten done.

It’s bad enough that there are 50,000 TV shows about diseases and hospitals.  You think this doesn’t cost you and me and the health care system money?  Ask any doctor.  They call it ER Syndrome.  After an episode that mentions meningitis, real life ER’s and doctor’s offices fill up for the next days with thousands of people suddenly convinced they have the disease, or whatever disease was the focus that week.

And it’s even worse that the TV news considers its job to be to scare us and make us worry.  Nary a day goes by without them trying to make you fear you better watch them or you’ll die from this disease or that.

But worst of all, now the companies that sell the drugs have free reign to barrage you with Madison Avenue crafted ads to convince you you need drugs for things that not only you don’t have, but you didn’t even know existed.

This is all really bad in and of itself.  It is offensive, it costs us billions a year now, and it causes all sorts of problems for would-be healthy people.

But now, it has crossed the line to a level that demands immediate action.

During last night’s Yankee/Red Sox game, an ad came on for a drug called Levitra.  Now, we’ve all seen the tongue-in-cheek Viagra and Cialis ads.  We may have mocked Rafael Palmero as he degraded himself by whipping a bat out of a bat rack as he bragged about how his low sexual batting average was replaced with, “Batter up,” thanks to Viagra.  And we’ve cringed as poor middle-aged men are taunted by younger women in Cialis ads who can’t stop gushing about how insufficient their partners were sexually prior to taking the medication.

All of this was wrong, disgusting, and offensive.  But last night, as I sat trying to watch the major league baseball playoffs with my five year old niece, an ad came on in which a woman sat before the camera, looking right out at us all, and bragged about how Levitra gave her man, and I quote, “long-lasting erections,” which led to “quality sex.”

If a moment of Janet Jackson’s nipple saying hello during the Super Bowl is such a family offending moment that the station and she got pounded with a massive media assault and six figure penalties, the fine for this undeniably pre-planned, inescapably inappropriate, offensive, and lude display in the middle of the baseball playoffs should lead to something the media screams it head off about and fines in the millions, if not jail time.

“Long-lasting erections,” which are to thank for “quality sex,” my niece learned last night, as we tried to watch one of the most significant baseball games in American history.  Even better, she learned these “long-lasting erections” that are so important for this “quality sex” are something you get thanks to drugs.

The lack of outcry from the Bush/Limbaughians who made such a big deal about Janet’s ugly tit shows that for them there are clearly two Americas:  one for the people, and another, much-freer, more lenient one for the corporations.

If announcer Tim McCarver had said on the air, “I’ve been having really long-lasting erections lately, leading to really high quality sex,” he would have been fired and he and the station fined – even if it were just a spontaneous, momentary lapse of sanity and dignity.

But a company spends millions to make and air a commercial, planning step by step to talk about “long-lasting erections” right in the middle of the baseball playoffs, and there’s not a peep to be heard.

Except from us here at The Moderate Independent, of course.

This is intolerable and must not be allowed to continue.  I plan on introducing my niece to her first World Series – and watching along with my mother there as well – and will not be made to suffer more horrible moments of disgusting degradation because some money-worshipping pharmaceutical company wants to sell you your erection.

Please, stand up for decent Americans, even when the fake conservative Bush/Limbaughians won’t since it is one of their corporate buddies doing the offending this time.  Take a moment and contact the FCC at fccinfo@fcc.gov .  Include the following info, as directed by their website.

• Your name, address, and a telephone number where you can be reached during the business day;

• Specific information about your complaint, including the names of all companies involved with your complaint; (in this case, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline, as well as the FOX Network for airing the ad (not FOX News, just the regular FOX network.)

• What type of resolution are you seeking?  (Tell them the ads must be pulled immediately and both the advertiser and station fined heavily for this intentional, blatant offense.)

Let them have it and let’s see if they respond when it is us moderates who are upset as fully as they did when the Bush/Limbaugh right cried and screamed.  And most importantly, let’s see if we can get those ads off the air before Saturday night’s game one.

M/I, striking a blow for decency and the defense of the sanctity of the American pastime.