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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wants to Ban Drug Ads on TV. It Wouldn’t Be Easy.
The New York Times ^ | Dec. 23, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET | Rebecca Robbins

Posted on 12/23/2024 9:02:39 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

Since the late 1990s, drug companies have spent tens of billions of dollars on television ads, drumming up demand for their products with cheerful jingles and scenes of dancing patients.

Now, some people up for top jobs in the incoming Trump administration are attacking such ads, setting up a clash with a powerful industry that has long had the courts on its side.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for health secretary, is a longtime critic of pharmaceutical advertising on TV, arguing that it leads broadcasters to more favorable coverage of the industry and does not improve Americans’ health. He has repeatedly and enthusiastically called for a ban on such ads.

Elon Musk, who is spearheading a government cost-cutting effort, last month wrote on X, his social-media site, “No advertising for pharma.”

And Brendan Carr, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, said that his agency could enforce any ban that is enacted. “I think we’re way, way too overmedicated as a country,” he said.

The push against TV drug ads threatens to dent the revenues of pharmaceutical companies, which can make back in sales five times as much as they spend on commercials, according to some analysts. It could also create uncertainty for major television networks, which bring in substantial revenue from pharmaceutical advertisers trying to reach older viewers, who tend to take more medications.

Though it’s not clear how such a ban might happen — Mr. Kennedy has called for an executive order — any attempt would face an uphill battle. Efforts to modestly restrict drug ads have repeatedly been defeated in the courts, often on First Amendment grounds. The first Trump administration tried to require...


(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: ban; baninformation; banitall; bantv; rfkjr
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No other country allows drug companies to advertise their poisons on television.

90% of the corporate gaslight "news" media revenue is "Brought to you by Pfizer," which is why the corporate gaslight "news" media never has any bad news about Pfizer or the rest of the pharmaceutical industry.

1 posted on 12/23/2024 9:02:39 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

NY TIMES.


2 posted on 12/23/2024 9:04:23 AM PST by blackdog ((Z28.310) Be careful what you say. Your refrigerator may be listening & reporting you.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Companies aren’t citizens, so they should not have full citizen rights.

The US citizen owners could say stuff, however.


3 posted on 12/23/2024 9:04:51 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

75% of news media ad revenues come from big pharmacy companies. Got it?


4 posted on 12/23/2024 9:05:48 AM PST by blackdog ((Z28.310) Be careful what you say. Your refrigerator may be listening & reporting you.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Didn’t congress pass legislation some years ago to get rid of those ads? Whatever happened with that?

They’re some of the worst ads on TV ... and half of each of those ads is spent listing side effects.


5 posted on 12/23/2024 9:06:54 AM PST by al_c (Democrats: Party over Common Sense)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Watching our news has terrible side effects.


6 posted on 12/23/2024 9:06:54 AM PST by blackdog ((Z28.310) Be careful what you say. Your refrigerator may be listening & reporting you.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Most of these ads tell you the reasons the drug will likely kill you.


7 posted on 12/23/2024 9:09:00 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I would LOVE that. Some hour-long shows’ ads make up about 50% of all the commercials. I, for one, resent shelling out $1K for a drug while these ultra glitzy and expensive ads are in my face all the time.


8 posted on 12/23/2024 9:09:02 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I want them banned too. I hate the ads because they are not selling them to viewers because we can’t buy or get them with a doctor’s prescription.. Big Pharma is just paying for good reporting on their poisons. That is the only reason for these ads.


9 posted on 12/23/2024 9:09:18 AM PST by dforest
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It used to be illegal for lawyers to advertise on TV too. I’m all in favor of defunding the MSM nightly news.


10 posted on 12/23/2024 9:09:37 AM PST by MNnice
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Start with banning advertisements for all drugs that the manufacturer is not liable for.

Include in the ban the deceptive practice of using taxpayer money for government agencies such as the CDC to advertise for korporations.

Pfizer didn't run adds for their Jim Jones Jab - Fauxi had the CDC run them, using taxpayer money.

11 posted on 12/23/2024 9:11:02 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

New Zealand ? The point is taken, though. If he runs in 2028 with ads still on it is going to be a total blackout on coverage once again.


12 posted on 12/23/2024 9:11:07 AM PST by erlayman (E )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Sounds great ... until you realize that if we give the govt the ability to block ads we don't like, then we give the govt the ability to block other speech, including what we do like.

I'm more worried about things like govt funded health insurance not allowing "unapproved" treatments. Of course the end results is the medical community has to go with the approved treatments to keep the govt money flowing.

And of course I'm worried about state regulations with covid and the forcing of taking "vaccines" to keep your job.

13 posted on 12/23/2024 9:11:38 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

If you watch commercial television, you would think everyone on the planet has horrible skin problems.


14 posted on 12/23/2024 9:12:24 AM PST by z3n (Kakistocracy)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for health secretary...”

I hope he gets confirmed.


15 posted on 12/23/2024 9:13:30 AM PST by Mr. N. Wolfe
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Love the fact that President Trump is surrounding himself with strong people. ready and willing to get the tough jobs done.

Well done, Sir!

16 posted on 12/23/2024 9:14:24 AM PST by Churchillspirit (Pray for President Trump)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
If you can't buy it without a prescription, you can't advertise it.

Used to be the rule. Returning to that would help I think.

17 posted on 12/23/2024 9:15:14 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

He’s attacking the symptom, not the cause

As long as 3rd-party payers - which ultimately is government or government-regulated and controlled 3rd parties - the incentive for drug companies will ALWAYS be to push you, the consumer - to demand this drug.

they will also incentivize doctors to prescribe it

So as DC always does, RFK Jr. can do a “ban” - which does nothing to change the root of the problem.


18 posted on 12/23/2024 9:16:20 AM PST by PGR88
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I had a discussion with Freepers some time back and I thought they should be banned (I even had one jackwad who maintained the pharmaceutical commercials were “educational” and he kept asking me if I was against educating people)

Two Freepers rightfully pointed out it was a 1st Amendment issue, and...I had to reluctantly agree.

As much as I hated to do so.

I don’t watch television, but every time I glance at one in passing, there seems to be a pharmaceutical commercial on, often with two men or two women holding hands or some crap like that.


19 posted on 12/23/2024 9:17:17 AM PST by rlmorel ("A people that elect corrupt politicians are not victims...but accomplices." George Orwell)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Fox won’t be happy - Pfizer et al OWNS them

This is why the megacorps and globaloids didn’t want Trump.


20 posted on 12/23/2024 9:17:18 AM PST by AAABEST (That time Washington DC became a corrupted, existential threat to us all...)
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