How the elderly are portrayed in drug commercials

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by dead of night, Jun 23, 2020.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    I forgot to include that one.
     
  2. pocofan

    pocofan Senior Member

    Location:
    Alabama
    Maybe a glitch in the gene pool
     
    MikaelaArsenault likes this.
  3. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    "TV violence affects children whose parents act like TV Personalities."
     
  4. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    I always used to hate TV programs or movies. where lead characters worked in the ad business. And were presented as upstanding normal people.

    There's one Canadian ad where the pitchman for some shabby insurance company barks for a full 2 minutes.

    I try to hope these actors maybe are feeding children and bringing them up well, but mostly I despair.
     
    SomeCallMeTim and showtaper like this.
  5. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    In some ways they seem like the metaphorical equivalent of the car ads that show that beautiful, empty highway -- an idealized image not intended to reflect reality.
     
    BEAThoven, EdgardV and unclefred like this.
  6. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    Seeing that again after all these years made me laugh out loud. Why is it that money brings out the shameless in people? Did he really need that extra cash?
     
    timind and Atmospheric like this.
  7. jimac51

    jimac51 A mythical beast.

    Location:
    Allentown,pa.
    The first on always cracks me up:"Don't take(drug about the ad) if you are allergic to(drug about the ad"). It's like those warnings on peanut butter for those allergic to peanuts: Caution-produced in factory where peanuts are processed.
    I was on a trial jury where the plaintiff's lawyers were not only trying to get tons of money,but a "caution" warning attached to the product. We easily found in favor of the defendant,and part of this was because the lawyers were overreaching. We did hold off until we got a free lunch on the fed's dime(aka taxpayers).
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2020
  8. showtaper

    showtaper Concert Hoarding Bastard

    Asian mailman? :D
     
    timind, silverhead, Gumboo and 3 others like this.
  9. rockclassics

    rockclassics Senior Member

    Location:
    Mainline Florida
    I can some up all the side effects in one line.... Taking this drug could kill you.
     
  10. dead of night

    dead of night Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northern Va, usa
    And in these commercials the solitary senior citizen does not exist. The senior is always, must always, be in a group. Could be a motorcycle club, a yoga class, a crafts club with teenagers, hooked up, more popular than a high school cheerleader. He does not exercise alone, eat alone, tea alone. If there's laughter, it's group laughter.

    The senior citizen thrives in these ads, he is intimate with his loving, elderly wife, they carry on like newlyweds. You won't see him limping down the street, estranged from wife and kids, hitting on women decades younger. Always rejected. But he has Ablixa in his life and no inhibitions.
     
  11. bluesbro

    bluesbro Forum Hall of Shame

    Location:
    DC
    Yeah, and baby commercials always show a healthy baby with responsible parents. Not some baby with a 3 day dirty diaper living in a trailer park crawling in cheerios while mommy is shooting heroin.

    Who wants to see that in a commercial?
     
    Tim Lookingbill and EdgardV like this.
  12. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    There is a trend of trying to avoid the usual stereotypes of older people who are poor, living off a fixed income, perpetually ill, or disabled. In that way, they've created a new stereotype of the gracious, carefree senior citizens who played their money right and take happy walks through the park and vacation all year because of such and such drug.

    That advertised miracle drug, when it doesn't cause 1000 side effects and endanger your health to where you would need that walker, allows you to live to be 100 years old and play ball with the great-grandkids and drive race cars...and win! You can take a cruise around the world and show everyone how to play shuffle board like a boss while sipping on some rare wine.

    What a life! can't wait to get there, take all the new, cutting-edge drugs to lower my blood pressure, cure my rheumatoid arthritis, and cure my tummy ache, and live the good life in a house I have a reverse mortgage on that was endorsed by The Fonz!
     
  13. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient

    Location:
    new york city
    1) - the observations you make are true of nearly all people in all commercials, though. I have noticed no greater pattern with seniors. And I have seen commercials with solitary seniors that weren't meant to demean the situation. There's a catheter commercial than ran fairly frequently here a year or two ago that featured 5 or 6 seniors in solitary shots expounding on how much they liked the product.

    2) - the "group thing" isn't just about portraying seniors in an attractive light, but for the full complement of people who could be watching. Seniors shown frolicking with large loving families might be more likely to prompt one of *those* people watching the ad to say "hey dad, have you looked into taking (drug)? than otherwise might be the case. And these people will more likely see their own loved seniors in this kind of idealized light. Nobody wants to think of their parent or grandparent as being solitary or depressed. That just makes them change the channel.
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2020
  14. coniferouspine

    coniferouspine Forum Resident

    To be fair, there is also a smaller class or subset of senior adults in commercials, who are vexed by problems and make pained, difficult faces. These ads are aimed at the children of the elderly demographic, the people now in their 40s and '50s, making the economic and medical decisions about their parents' care. The "Help I've fallen and I can't get up" lady being perhaps the most famous thespian in the genre, but there are many many others in this vein.
     
  15. nategibson672

    nategibson672 Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Haven
    I love this commercial. Could you imagine taking a math professor seriously who looked like this guy?
    :shtiphat:
     
    drift and MikaelaArsenault like this.
  16. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US


    A drug saved mine. It's called cannabis. It helps me erase the first lousy sixty years of life.
     
  17. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    A lot of my friends are older now, in their 70s, and they say they don't want to live to 80 because the 70s suck enough and life isn't pleasant or healthy. They all say that. That's reality of getting older, no matter how good you take care of yourself (they all do).
     
  18. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Well worth the cash, that would have a respectable purpose. Considering who he was, he certainly was familiar with the hypocritical nature of his target demographic...:whistle:
     
  19. Paul J

    Paul J Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore
    You are watching Jeopardy too much....
     
  20. EdgardV

    EdgardV ®

    Location:
    USA
    Not sure what you're looking to express. As a few other posters have eluded to, the advertising techniques used in ads regarding seniors are really no different thant most other demographics.

    1.) They identify a problem, (real or invented), 2.) offer a product or service to solve that problem, and 3.) do it all showing the people who use that product or service are living a perfect life full of happiness and fulfilment.

    This has been the base equation for advertising for at least the past hundred years.

    We can choose to be sucked in by it and believe it all, or we can ignore it all, or with a critical eye we can try to extract the few morsels of tangible facts that might be helpful.
     
  21. forthlin

    forthlin Member Chris & Vickie Cyber Support Team

    Yeah you'd have to come downstairs at my house to see that:shh:
     
    Suncola and timind like this.
  22. The Wanderer

    The Wanderer Seeker of Truth

    Location:
    NYC
  23. The Wanderer

    The Wanderer Seeker of Truth

    Location:
    NYC
  24. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Aaaah, there they are - Mr. and Mrs. Average Senior American!
     
    MikaelaArsenault likes this.
  25. The Wanderer

    The Wanderer Seeker of Truth

    Location:
    NYC
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine