The Mighty

If Pharma Commercials Had Honest ‘Before’ and ‘After’ Photos

The Mighty

January 16, 2016 at 9:01 AM

The pharmaceutical companies think they know their target audiences.

For the most part, they probably do, if the waiting room at my rheumatologist is any indication. However, they kind of overestimate the “after” effect of medications on those of us with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). I made my sister take a staged pic of me for the “before” picture:

(Photo: Stephanie Ezzell)

This is the kind of thing you usually see in the beginning of commercials: She’s obviously so unhappy that the weather joins her unhappiness.

I was having a conversation with my rheumatologist at my last appointment about this subject and mentioned the sweater. It seems like, regardless of the ailment, all “before” people in drug commercials have the same gray sweater, exactly like the one I was wearing that day (which happens to be different from the one I am wearing in this picture, so maybe they have a point). Ahem, anyway…

This is what “before” actually looks like:

(Photo: Stephanie Ezzell)

OK, kind of, but kind of not. This is “home before,” whereas a normal person looking like she is normally going about her day is the real day-to-day, out-in-the-world “before.”

You deal with symptoms, no one figures them out, it drags on forever and you find ways to cope. That’s just how it goes.

“After,” as depicted in the advertising world (though no one says how long after, I guess) usually looks something like this:

(Photo: Stephanie Ezzell)

Photo credit here goes to me, obviously. The photo is of my husband and little one, because the world in which I am an “after” doesn’t yet exist.

In “after” everyone always seems to be doing something super fun and happy without a care in the world. I mean, I try to do these things because I am a wife and a mother and a person, but I still mostly feel like the blanket cocoon 24/7, even while on like nine different medications.

My “after” looks more like this: