It’s got to be a generation thing, but it’s embarrassing to me to see and hear commercials on the tube for products that should be closeted.
The products I’m referring to are for use after doctor consultation in the privacy of their office, not for airing to the general public. You know the ones I mean, but does the younger audience have to know they have these bodily dysfunctions to look forward to?
Do they tune them out? Do they not try to understand what the product will cure or bring relief from? Do the puberty approachers need to be exposed to these ailments and soothers?
Viagra is a good example of over exposure of a product that needn’t have been invented, unless comedians were short of material. ‘Ask your doctor for free samples,? the announcer pleads.
So, I asked my doctor, ‘Do people really ask you about Viagra?? He said it was the most asked about drug to ever come on the market. Good gracious, have imaginations gone with memories in the aging populace?
When cigarette advertising was banned from the airways, network owners had to come up with other revenue sources. I believe they got with various pharmaceutical companies and convinced them the world was ready to hear about continence control products.
And the drug makers went wild. First they formed a committee, you always start with a committee (ask your government) to come up with a bunch of names that feel good on the tongue, are memorable and have no hidden meaning.
Besides Viagra, names that now dominate in prime tube time are Zocor, Allegra, Nexium, Avandia, Embrel, Allegra, Detrol LA and Vagisil.
I don’t think I need to know about any of those things and I’m certainly not going to ask my doctor. If I need ’em, he should tell me without my asking.
These things are being forced on me. They often make me blush, even when I’m alone.
Preparation H Medicated Wipes. Hormone Replacement Therapy. Stress Urinary. Incontinence. My daddy might have known about these things, but I don’t need to know unless my physician tells me I need to know.
Even then, if I sense he’s going to get too personal, I’ll blush, turn my head and call for mommy.
Of course, this exposure we’re experiencing comes from our growing permissive, free thinking, First Amendment rights and uncloseting of people’s ideas and practices.
Paddling our children will make them resentful. We have to allow cursing, but can’t use God’s name in public. Equal rights, animal rights and the rights of fish are often called for.
We have sex education classes in our schools that seem to be a failure, based on the number of unmarried mothers. Seems like sex was learned better on the playground than in the classroom.
The cry for more permissiveness increases, and the Survivor-type shows don’t help.
On the other hand. Well, take a good look at the young people you know. Over 95 percent of them will not go to jail. Over 50 percent will seek higher education. The vast majority will seek what our generation calls a normal family life.
And, they’ll be just fine despite having learned all the uses for drugs mentioned in this column.