It still seems like a new development to me, that advertisements for prescription drugs are on television, although it has been well over a decade now since this started. The tropes of these are fairly well developed: an attractive, active older person goes about their daily business while discussing a health problem that got in the way of their prosperous life. A health problem that was solved by the advertised product, which is then followed, in the same cheerful tone, with a list of the caveats associated with it, which can lead up to serious illness and death. But I am not here to deconstruct television ads, which has already been done elsewhere. Instead, I wish to focus on a single phrase:
"Talk to your dermatologist about..."
or
"Talk to your rheumatologist about..."
or
"Talk to your gasteroenterologist about..."
and so on, with whatever specialty is relevant to advertised drug.
A large part of the business of medical advertising, as well as medicine in general, is to convey a sense of status on people. The attention of the members of the medical establishment, with their education and social status, is a big reason why health care is such a knotty issue in American culture: the cultural importance of medicine is often bigger than its utilitarian goals of promoting "health". And what this means in terms of this disclaimer in television pharmaceutical advertising is that it conveys status on the listener. They are the type of person, after all, who has a medical specialist on retainer. The type of person who not only has access to medical care, but has a cardiologist on speed dial.
And while pointing out that flattery as part of advertising is not a novel idea, it should be pointed out just how far from reality this type of language is. How many people have easy access to even a primary care physician? Even for the insured and connected, it isn't usually the case that calling up even a primary care physician to talk about prescriptions is an easy task. And when it gets to specialists, not many people have someone they could call "your dermatologist". People who would have such a thing are either a) professional models or b) suffering from a painful and serious disease. When television advertisements blithely suggest having a conversation with a specialist, they are talking about something that applies to perhaps one person in one thousand.
I don't wish to get into a debate about The US Health Care System because it is 2013 and myeh. But it is I think gainful to point out how much of the debate has been shaped by blithe impossibilities that filter into people's brains and settle there. Even visiting a primary care provider to discuss a bad cold is going to cost me two week's rent, and it would probably be easier for me to arrange a hot air balloon ride than it would be for me to visit a medical specialist. And the reality of this causes an eye rolling disconnect between myself and people who somehow magically have managed to carry around the myth that health care can be accessed without barriers.