Just to add to the discussion, one of my fellow NBC Pages worked for a
years in ad sales for the news division. Drug companies and semi-related
life insurance companies notoriously buy ad time on the cheap, meaning if
the program you’re watching contains a lot of pharmaceutical commercials,
the program in question is not a big money maker for the network that airs
it.

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 9:41 AM PGage <[email protected]> wrote:

> Right, only NZ and The US have such open direct-to-consumer advertising;
> and I am old enough to remember when it was if not prohibited at least rare
> here. And even in the US, most insurance plans have formularies, with
> expensive or not fully established medications not available. One purpose
> of all the “ask your doctor” ads is to put consumer pressure not just on
> doctors but on insurers to make certain drugs available.
>
> I don’t really understand how you guys can afford both socialized medicine
> and the Royal albatross, while we still have so many millions without
> access to basic healthcare.
>
> On Mon, 8 Mar 2021 at 7:50 AM Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I know of at least two people who stayed up until 2am to watch it live on
>> some kind of dodgy stream somewhere. And yes, there were a lot of comments
>> on the volume of advertising the interview had. I don't know if it was more
>> than the usual 19-20 mins per hour, but that is higher than we get in the
>> UK where we were, until recently, regulated by the EU and still have limits
>> on the number of breaks (two mid-breaks in a one hour show, one break in a
>> half-hour), and the number of ads.
>>
>> But literally every person I talk to who's been to the US for vacation or
>> business will mention the pharmaceutical ads. It's worth noting that this
>> has been (at least until very recently - I believe Canada might now allow
>> them) an almost uniquely American thing. In the UK and EU, you only see
>> drug adverts for over the counter drugs. There's no "Ask your doctor"
>> advertising. There's also much hilarity at the nature of the ads - 30
>> seconds of benefits/ 30 seconds of hideous side effects. I believe that
>> this type of advertising was only also legal in New Zealand. So yes - it's
>> about as strange to us as seeing cigarette advertising on TV.
>>
>> Of course, European health services are very different. In the UK, most
>> people are treated under the NHS and you basically don't get a choice about
>> drug treatment. Not every drug is even available - there are committees
>> that determine which drugs the NHS will make available. (So  yes, really
>> expensive cancer drugs sometimes aren't available). And while some do have
>> private healthcare, it probably doesn't really allow for the kind of
>> drug-picking these ads are hypothesised on. Private healthcare is really to
>> make sure you don't have to wait for surgeries etc. It's probably not going
>> to cover you for an expensive cocktail of drugs otherwise unavailable on
>> the NHS.
>>
>> The interview is airing in the UK tonight on ITV, although obviously it
>> has already been fully gutted by all the news programmes this morning.
>> Personally I'm getting more - small r- republican as the days go by. The
>> Royal Family needs to radically modernise or ship out.
>>
>>
>> Adam
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 3:16 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> I am not in the target demo to watch an interview of Oprah interviewing
>>> “Royals” (though the headline that they allege that someone at the palace
>>> was worried their kids skin would be too dark sounds about right).
>>>
>>> I did find this Twitter thread interesting, in which Brits who were able
>>> to watch the American broadcast of the interview are obsessed with how many
>>> commercials Americans are exposed to for drugs. It is a reminder that
>>> healthcare does not have to be a business. Would be nice to put more
>>> restrictions again on direct-to-consumer advertising in the US.
>>>
>>> Also, I thought Oprah had a relationship with ABC, but it looks like
>>> this interview was in CBS?
>>>
>>> https://twitter.com/ayeshaasiddiqi/status/1368901637604007939?s=21
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