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I don't have a tv anymore, but a bunch of people on tumblr are saying that there's one of those 1-800-Bad-Drug/lawsuit commercials about Nuvaring, saying that it causes blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, etc. The thing is, those warnings are on the pamphlets for pretty much every hormonal birth control! So why make a separate commercial about it? I'm currently on nuvaring and so I can't help but feel like they're trying to scare me, even though I'm young, exercise regularly and eat healthy. Has anyone else seen the commercial or have any input on these kinds of advertisements?
Posts: 48 | From: california | Registered: Dec 2010
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Ok, I say this without having seen the commercial, so take this with a grain of salt, but maybe I can shed some light.
Typically, these commercials are released when someone is pursuing what's called a class action lawsuit against the makers of a given drug.
So, here's some super-quick legal background to explain what a class action is, and why they do commercials like this for them. So, when a company produces a product that is in some way flawed, and that flaw causes harm to someone who buys or uses the product, the company has committed what's called a tort, and the person who was harmed has the right to sue the company to recover the cost of the damage that was done to them. The thing is that with a typical lawsuit, only one victim of the damages can sue the company at a time, even if lots of people were hurt by the same thing. So, if a large group of people are hurt by the same thing, the law allows them to form what's called a "class," and sue the company that caused the damages together, as a group, to save time and effort and money. The problem with that is that there's lots of rules for forming a class. One of those rules is that there have to be enough people in the class for a court to find that they're sufficiently representative of all of the people harmed. So, when a small group of people wants to do a class action lawsuit, they (or their lawyers) often run TV commercials like that, to try to find more people that were harmed by the product to make their class big enough.
(This is a huge oversimplification, by the way, but to make a long story short, there are a lot of reasons that it's absolutely necessary for the people bringing a class action suit to run TV commercials to try and find as many other harmed people as possible.)
Point is, these commercials are not being run to scare you. They're not judging you, or really saying anything about you. There are risks to every drug, to every substance you put in your body, and it's between you and your doctor to assess what risk/reward calculation is appropriate for you. Certainly if you're young, exercise, and eat healthy, your risks of developing DVT on hormonal birth control are very low. But what these commercials are doing is trying to find the people whom these very low chances have happened to (and it DOES happen, even if the risks are very low), essentially so that they can make more money in their lawsuit. The commercials are not intended to be any sort of commentary at all on the people who haven't had negative side effects to the drug. They say them in a scary voice, because scary voices are more likely to get people's attention...and therefore to find the people who have had negative side effects...and therefore make more money.
If you have more questions based on what I've just said, I'm happy to answer them.
Posts: 97 | From: Virginia, USA | Registered: May 2011
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(BrightStar, that was an AMAZING sumup of this issue. I could not have done it half as well myself. Thanks!)
-------------------- Heather Corinna, Executive Director & Founder, Scarleteen About Me • Get our book! Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead Posts: 63416 | From: An island near Seattle | Registered: May 2000
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Wow. I just learned a LOT! And now I know. Thanks for that response Well, so far, they're not gonna get a call from me!
Posts: 48 | From: california | Registered: Dec 2010
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BrightStar, I'd also like to state that your response floored me. What you said was a wonderful breakdown of a complex judicial process; and it was very informative and helped me understand the issue. Thank you for your response!
-------------------- "I do the best that I can. I'm just what I am." - Rush (Best I Can) Posts: 667 | From: Canada | Registered: May 2012
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Well, so far, they're not gonna get a call from me!
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