TOW # 22 - Drugs you Don’t Need for Disorders you Don’t Have

While watching TV we normally choose to actively ignore any commercial shown to us. Though if we were to pay attention, we may see that many of those advertisements shown are for medications. As a kid, I never understood those commercials, picking medicines was the doctor’s job, but after reading Drugs you Don’t Need for Disorders you Don’t Have, by Jonathan Cohn, I began to understand. It’s clear that there are so many commercials for medications because the producers of these drugs plan to make money from selling their product. In order to more actively sell their product, they must advertise to both average consumers as well as doctors. The problem Cohn, an author for Huffington Post, points out in his article is that many of these advertisements spew lies.

One advertisement for a sleeping pill claims it is better than all others, but Cohn knows of research done that proves the pill actually has a very minimal effect that renders it basically useless. This shows that the advertisement uses extreme hyperbole in order to sell it’s product. Cohn is arguing that medication advertisements should not claim things about their product they cannot support, and they must also share the possible side effects. I agree with this as I don’t enjoy being lied to and being convinced to put something in my body that I believe will do one thing as it actually does another. Today these advertisements greatly live up to Cohn’s set expectations, as a very high percentage either exaggerated or down right lie. So Cohn today would very much still agree with his argument from his article. Although he does not use any classical models of argument, he does use many credible sources which highly boost the credibility of his argument, helping to convince me. Some may argue that his position is wrong, saying that most advertisements exaggerate and that only thirty seconds of airtime is not long enough to harp on negative side effects. But I believe these are all important issues for when it comes to medicine and how negatively medication can affect us. This article has helped my ignorant self as a child transition to me now as someone who is opinionated in this subject.