I, and many others, are absolutely sick of those amateurish Ozempic and Rybelsus advertisements. I'm sure you know the ones, particularly now, during the Olympics, when it's really hard to get away from them for more than a few minutes at a time.
Ozempic, of course, is the ultra-successful semaglutide injection, technically a pretty effective treatment for diabetes (if you can deal with a bunch of side-effects), and Rybelsus is the pill form of the same drug. Both are produced by Novo Nordisk, the highly successful Danish pharmaceutical company.
Probably more often, though, they are prescribed "off-label" for obesity and weight-loss in general. Again, pretty successful, if you can stomach side-effects, like nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain, and potentially more serious risks like pancreatitis, gall bladder inflammation, kidney issues, low blood sugar, and possibly even thyroid tumours.
So, it's not something to be taken lightly. But it is so well known now for its weight loss properties that patients across the world are trying to persuade their doctors to prescribe it for them. And, increasingly, doctors are doing so. And, not content with their successes to date, Novo Nordisk is blanket advertising everywhere, on multiple platforms.
But wait, you say, this is not America! It's illegal to advertise prescription medications in Canada, isn't it? Well, yes, but Novo Nordisk argues that they are not actually advertising a medical treatment for a medical condition. They are allowed to run what are called "reminder ads", where the drug's name is repeated ad nauseam while not actually making any specific medical claims. Thus, the ads just repeat phrases like "I just asked", "Is it right for you?", or "Just ask your doctor".
Of course, given that most people already know what they do, this is a bit disingenuous, perhaps within the letter of the law but definitely not in the spirit. And meanwhile, we are being inundated with their tedious advertising.
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