What's going on with al those testosterone commercials?

[rabo]

Several times an evening you see them on national television.
While the tone of the sports conversation is strongly anti dope, the market is running away with dopers arguments "restore your natural levels".
With virtually no testing present at USAC non pro events the temptation for some might be too much. After all they only restore their hormone levels. Really wondering how much of this is going on. It must be big business to pay for that tv time.

[nate2351]

I've head a lot of whispers about guys in the masters peloton racing with testosterone prescriptions.

[corko]

on a side note ... i'd like to know what the significance of the2 bathtubs in the Cialis ads mean?

[jonathanb]

on a side note ... i'd like to know what the significance of the2 bathtubs in the Cialis ads mean?

One for each nut.

[j44ke]

I think the two tubs suggest the man and woman are not married the man got dumped by his old wife because his pecker wasn't working and now he has this new woman who is more understanding so he's willing to admit his problems talk to his doctor and with her support try Cialis so he can rock her world. They are in two tubs which is sort of like sleeping in separate beds but separate beds are old like grandma and grandpa and tubs are new and naked and sexy plus water is like sex as well as being like a baptismal or rebirth (woo-hoo!) so it is like his pecker is being reborn. There should be angels.

I'd like to say I just thought that up, but my wife thinks those ads are frickin' hilarious so we've had a few discussions about the implied narrative. I'm a poet, she's a lawyer, things are bound to get deconstructed.

Oh and some of her Type-A colleagues over 50 seem to be getting these "anti-aging" treatments. And some of them race bikes. Mostly triathlons though.

[Moke]

The "aging clinics" for the boomers is a huge cash cow. After the age of 50 almost any man alive could get a doc to say they have lower "T" levels than they need to have or used to have and and get on the juice. Hell yea that stuff works. Does increase risk for prostate cancer risks as well. But man even if you just want to hammer the boys at Wednesday Worlds, got to have the stuff. If the pills don't work for the other issues you can give yourself a shot in the goods and it will keep you going for an hour. Oh what a world we live in.

[topher]

I hate the damn commercials. I have to fight off patients who come to me for "low T" and then don't understand why I won't give it to them when their levels are completely normal. It seems every male thinks he should feel like an 18 year old throughout his life and won't accept the effects of their diet, lifestyle, sleep, etc for why they are tired and gaining weight. We are in the world of the quick fix and nothing else will do.

[EricKeller]

the retinal specialist I go to has the cure for that problem. When I had an issue that effectively left me blind in my right eye, he convinced me that anything that messes with my hormones/steriods was going to cause it to recur or get worse. "you'll go blind"

[ldamelio]

I hate the damn commercials. I have to fight off patients who come to me for "low T" and then don't understand why I won't give it to them when their levels are completely normal. It seems every male thinks he should feel like an 18 year old throughout his life and won't accept the effects of their diet, lifestyle, sleep, etc for why they are tired and gaining weight. We are in the world of the quick fix and nothing else will do.

+1. Imaginary diagnoses (Low T = normal aging, social anxiety disorder = shyness, restless leg syndrome = too much coffee, fibromyalgia = bored suburban housewife) make huge markets for big pharma. Study the target markets and characters in these ads carefully - all designed to appeal to a suggestible upper middle class, largely caucasian demographic. Funny how the urban poor don't get these diseases - they're too busy with the real ones.

(Steps off soapbox for another cup of coffee.)

PS: I have successfully cured restless leg syndrome with 18 pounds of lugged steel or 16 pounds of TIG'd titanium for years now.

PPS to j44ke above: triathlons ain't 'racing bikes.' Racing bikes is racing bikes.

[Christian Fox]

Oh, man, the radio ads are worse. Apparently I fall into quite the demographic: need the IRS off my back, need to negotiate my credit card debt, have low-t, and can't get a hard-on. I'm reminded of all this in repeated, 2 minute blocks between news stories. Quite the cocktail for whitey. And this is on Bloomberg radio, I can only imagine what the ads are like on Stern's channel. If there is truly a high enough demand for all this shit, this country is fucked.

[ldamelio]

Stern's channels promote non-veiled websites for infidelity and thinly veiled websites for what are essentially escort services - and this is my take as a fan . Apparently new p****y is an alternative to the pills pushed by big pharma. I agree that it's all a bad reflection on society.

[RickM]

What gets me about those ads are that a lot of those guys in the commercials appear to be younger then me, (I'm 57 in March) and they actually look like shite. I *KNOW* I am setting myself up for some mockery...but honestly...you havin' trouble gettin' a woody at 50-something years old? Unless you have a profound medical issue of some sort...I just don't get it. Oh...yeah...lay off the booze, the smokes, the cheeseburgers, and move your ass around every once in awhile. You're not a kid any more.

Pharma likes to create markets, like any business. Not sayin' it's right.

Best,

Chance "The Puritan" Rider

[Jonathan]

I've got a single buddy in his 30's who uses cialis. He says when you've been Out drinking all night and take a gal home you don't find all that attractive its good to have some help. I've been married since I was 24 so I have no idea what he's talking about.

[Saab2000]

When did testosterone become known as 'T'? And atrial fibrilation known as a-fib? When I moved back from Europe I was shocked by the prevalence of the marketing of drugs and remedies for problems the advertisers suggested you probably have.

[happycampyer]

Another ad campaign that drives me nuts is the one for Prilosec. If you don't want heartburn, don't eat the colossal fcuking corndog.

[Tom]

OK, how about the one for gout? I'm not picking on people with gout, for some people their kidneys simply don't work as well - I know one person that practically lives on blueberries, cranberries, cherries and the like and still suffers. I'm picking on the actors. You have to have been out of work for a really long time - your agent calls and says its a musical dinner theater production of Glengarry Glen Ross with the Peoria Civic Rep Thespanites or the gout ad where you carry an enormous flask of bile green fluid and act all helpless and chagrined. You choose the gout ad. Ow.

[Britishbane]

What a drag it is getting old...

[mainemike]

there is something very wrong w/drug companies being allowed to advertise on tv. i just don't get it and it's shameful. i stayed in a hotel this past wknd cuz it was fun place to ride out the storm and "treated" myself to some mindless time watching tv (precisely why i don't hve tv at home, i'm weak i'll watch it for hrs)- and its just baffling to me how stupid all these advertisers think we are. i don't see any difference between a drug co's ad for a drug that helps w/a serious medical condition, car insurance, stock trading/fin services, kids cereal, or the snuggie. no difference whatsoever. i don't get it i don't like it.

[vertical_doug]

When did testosterone become known as 'T'? And atrial fibrilation known as a-fib? When I moved back from Europe I was shocked by the prevalence of the marketing of drugs and remedies for problems the advertisers suggested you probably have.

I remember McDonald's strategy in Japan was to target the children with happy meals. Japanese Adults did not have the habit of eating fast food burgers and fries. But McDonald's knew if they could entice a younger generation with fond memories , they associate it as a comfort food and have a customer for life. This is one of the reasons Pharma is targeting children with ADHD drugs and the like. . . . create a new lifelong customer who has no pill popping aversion.

And this is another reason why the was on PEDS for sports will lose.

[christian]

I'd like to say I just thought that up, but my wife thinks those ads are frickin' hilarious so we've had a few discussions about the implied narrative. I'm a poet, she's a lawyer, things are bound to get deconstructed.

My wife and I also love the Cialis ads. Pure humor. I have to admit something though - the first time I saw the ad, I thought the male character in each scene was the same guy. So the commercial played as a sequence of five or six encounters between one guy and different women in my mind. It took the logical leap that there is simply no way an American company would make a commercial like that to disabuse me of the notion, and when I saw the ad a second time, I realized I was wrong.

Cliff notes: Malibu Road Band