Lots to worry about. Ask your doctor.

 

Thanks to the "idiot box" and too much time on my hands and too much crime on TV I've noted just of few things I'm hearing. In almost every case I can't decipher the plethora of warnings and can't even come close to just exactly I should ask my doctor about.

REPATHA tells me to "listen to your heart". Good advice I guess, Cute cartoony heart on the couch.

EYELEA HD is telling me to "Save your vision".

NEFFY seems to be mom's solution for Allergy Relief. Not sure who I need to talk to about this. Maybe this is an over the counter solution but...

ZEPBOUND, I guess is one of a bunch of solutions for strategic weight loss. I guess I need to contact Lilly Medicine Company for more information....or ask my doctor?

QUILIPTA  - another alphabet jumble name. This one will be a solution for Migraine. Will my doctor understand when I share this list of questions/complaints?

COBENVY - Am I supposed to be convinced that these smiling people are dealing successfully with Schitzophrenia because Bristol Myers Squib is running advertising on TV?

XIIDRA  - Well brand "X" must be trustworthy if advertised and I Ask my doctor about dry eye?

DUPIXENT - tells me to Do more with less Asthma? Huh?

Manufacturers sometimes want some of the spotlight on TV too like ABBVIE. They are saving me the trouble of rememebering some jumbled alphabet drug name but wants me to be on the lookout for Double Whammy of some sort of Psoriasis. Talk to your doctor.

BIKTARVY is an HIV treatment. 

OPDIVO QVATIG - Cancer Immuno treatment. (sp?)

RINVOQ - put UC in check. What?

TREMFYA - Imagine being a million miles away. What?  

CAMZYOS - "First in it's class..." Reduce obstructive in heart...HCM ... Only available in restrictive program. Side effects...including death. As little at $10.00 a month. Wow. Sounds lide a great thing to ask my doctor about...

VOLTAREN - "clinically something... (commercial on TV cut off) Guess I'll need to ask my doctor what the hell that commercial was trying to say about Arthritis Pain.

Shesh. Add a bunch of Law firms throwing phone numbers and offers like "If you don't get paid, we don't get paid." I need a doctor who can sit with me while I am trying to sort out all these commercial massages. 

SKYRIZI - ...get back in the picture. Huh? Intestinal lining...Abbvie must be a great healer company because SKYRIZI music and happy people on TV make me wanna ask my doctor...

Key trends in US pharma television advertising include:

• Massive Spending and Impressions: Pharma companies spend more than 7 billion on National TV Advertising. The US is one of only two countries that allow direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising on television. 
• Top Therapeutic Categories: The heaviest TV ad budgets belong to immunology, weight loss, and mental health drugs. Blockbuster medications like Skyrizi, Rinvoq, Wegovy, and Ozempic regularly top the monthly spending charts. 
• Regulatory Challenges: The FDA has cracked down on misleading advertising, pushing for longer risk disclosures. This trend is making long-form disclosures impractical for brief linear TV ads and is pushing brands toward streaming formats where longer disclosures are easier to include. 

The Face that Launched...

 

The Face That Launch'd A Thousand Ships

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
I will be Paris, and for love of thee,
Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack'd;
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;
Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
O, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars;
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appear'd to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;
And none but thou shalt be my paramour!

2025 Cards

 

Celebrate HBE

 

Frank and Jan Cipolla made a plan to visit Saint Louis, It was an opportunity for the confluence of personalities to gather at Oh London in Creve Coeur. Thursday October 30. It was a cool 60 degrees. 

Sarah and Todd Weaver, Paul Giacoletto, Chip and Julie Maddinger, Dave Cox, Wes Morgan, Darryl Vandiver, Karma Lamping, John and Marcy Darby, Chris Cedergreen, Teri Adams, Deb and Craig Bennet, Wayne and Karen Zimmerman, Charlie and Coanne Lee, John Grey, George Robin, Scott and Carla Menkes, Kay Maschek, Mark McLaren, Sherie Rolfing (Reed), Kathy Armstrong and more assembles for this impromptu meeting.

Classic Movie Monday 10/5/25

I viewed three classic movies today - Murder, My Sweet (1944), Spellbound (1945) and East of Eden (1955). It's a Monday October 6, 2025 and I expect to catch a full moon later this evening. All three movies were recorded from Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and added to the momentum of my viewing yesterday to Lord of the Flies (1963). 

 

Murder, My Sweet (released as Farewell, My Lovely in the United Kingdom) is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley (in her final film before retirement).^[4] The film is based on Raymond Chandler's 1940 novel Farewell, My Lovely. It was the first film to feature Chandler's primary character, the hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe.^[5]

Murder, My Sweet is, along with Double Indemnity (released five months prior), one of the first noir films, and a key influence in the development of the genre.^[5]

Spellbound is a 1945 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, and Michael Chekhov. It follows a psychoanalyst who falls in love with the new head of the Vermont hospital in which she works, only to find that he is an imposter suffering dissociative amnesia, and potentially, a murderer. Although the film is based on the 1927 novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Hilary Saint George Saunders and John Palmer, the plots are dramatically different.

East of Eden is a 1955 American epic period drama film directed by Elia Kazan and written by Paul Osborn, adapted from the fourth and final part of John Steinbeck's epic 1952 novel.

It stars James Dean as a wayward young man who, while seeking his own identity, vies for the affection of his deeply religious father against his favored brother, thus retelling the story of Cain and Abel. Appearing in supporting roles are Julie Harris, Raymond Massey, Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, and Jo Van Fleet.

Although set in early 20th century Monterey, California, much of the film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley. Of the three films in which James Dean played the lead, this is the only one to have been released during his lifetime.^[2]

Lord of the Flies is a 1963 British survival drama film written and directed by Peter Brook, adapted from William Golding's 1954 novel about 30 schoolboys who are marooned on an island where the behaviour of the majority degenerates into savagery.

The film was in production for much of 1961, though the film did not premiere until 1963, and was not released in the United Kingdom until 1964. Golding himself supported the film. When Kenneth Tynan was a script editor for Ealing Studios he commissioned a script of Lord of the Flies from Nigel Kneale, but Ealing Studios closed in 1959 before it could be produced.

The film premiered at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for a Palme d'Or. It was released in the UK by British Lion Films on July 23, 1964, and received positive reviews from critics. It was the first film adaptation of the novel, followed by a 1975 Filipino film and a 1990 American film.

Law Firm Advertising

I'm not gonna name names. So, if any of the claims sound familiar don't sue me. I am painfully aware of how much it cost to advertise. I'm an old school veteran of the ad biz and I kind of mourn the time when marketing a product or service meant finding compelling and creative ways to differentiate your offering. 

In my view, advertising was more respectful of the consumer. I cannot avoid the the changing landscape of what use to be traditional advertising channels. I'm overwhelmed, for example, how often I am assaulted by law firms and how lame and insulting their messages are to its customer prospects. 

I recently drove Interstate 70 in Saint Louis a short 20 mile stretch from Creve Coeur, MO to the Old North Neighborhood. That round trip treated me to no less than a dozen billboards screaming in that busy stretch of challenging traffic. 

The lawyers must believe in the power of advertising but I wonder if they believe in the rationality of their prospective customers.  

We win!

I guess a fair number of people considering engaging legal representation want a firm that is competent. But, this message is pretty arrogant and not easy to substantiate. Do you win 100% of the time? (That can't be true.) Do you win more than the competition. (Where can I find a ranking and relative win-rates? Not available.) 

We win a lot!

This claim is even more reliant on the "bandwagon effect" but where can the average joe get a perspective on what a lot means. Giant victories? Multiple wins for the little guy?

Injured in an auto accident? Call us.

This suggests that injury law is just a routine dance. They often tell you in ads to not even listen to the insurance company. It suggests that there is no civility in this instant adversarial battle triggered by whatever happened on the road that resulted in your personal injury,

We're the biggest.

Biggest? Well does that mean you are good? Does it mean you are good? How does this you make you the best choice for me.

We're big.

Sometimes that claim isn't even relative to the competition: local, national, specialty or otherwise.

Consultation is FREE. We'll help you understand what your case is worth.

Talk is cheap. I get it. It won't take your firm long to determine if you have a case. 

Don't listen to the insurance company. (They are not going to get you the money you deserve.)

Yup. They want you to believe that your sorry injured self deserves compensation and the law firm knows how to go get it for you. 

We will treat you like family.

Sure, what time should I show up for Thanksgiving dinner? 

We are the best. 

And you have a short list of winning believers who might be credible enough to endorse you in advertising. 

When in doubt, as your advertising agency suggests, hit 'em over the head with your clever/easy to remember phone number. Oh and if your name is on the door you can impress your prospects with your incredible sincerity.

 

Edgy Business College

A bold future. UMSL proudly announces the naming of the college of business after accomplished alum Ed G. Smith. The naming is unprecedented and will propel the college – already a leader in social mobility and workforce development for Greater St. Louis – toward even greater levels of success.

Ed G. Smith College of Business!