Generic medicine may have scary side effects.

bad results from bad drugs

Medicine, or…vaccines, anyone?

I almost never take medicine (or vaccines), and very rarely, aspirin. But I favor generic brands of anything, in theory. Hello, Costco and Walmart!

Big Pharm

As a working cartoonist, I’ve seen many, many drug ads in magazines. The magazines are for a medical audience, mostly doctors, who are huge fans of cartoons…and possibly of new drugs.  The pharmaceutical ads are some of the most innovative, fun ones: the page ad is coated with sandpaper, or gritty, or like sugar, or reflective or pop-out or fold-out, and I think there was a small sand timer in one. Big $ spent to produce and print those ads!

And of course we’ve all seen fancy  medical relief ads on TV.

Still, I think the more common audience is attracted towards saving money and buying cheap generic drugs. They always claim to be the same ingredients, anyway. (Or more likely, are expired patents for those prescriptions.)

So although I heartily agree with the premise of buying cheap, I still liked this idea in the cartoon: this is what happens with OTC (over the counter) drugs: Scary Hacking Man.

ID #3255z        Caption: Honey, it’s not a monster. It’s Daddy’s sinuses. He went the generic way this time.(mom talking to little boy who is frightened by a terrible hacking noise from his Dad in the bedroom)

 

Donna Barstow

Donna Barstow

Syndicated cartoonist in the New Yorker, LA Times, Harvard Business Review, Slate, textbooks, papers. Columnist for 10 years in Psychology Today. Set painter in studio Art Depts. Member Scriptwriters Network, script analyst. Author, 2 hardcopy books, Barnes & Noble Calendar.