Why are their so many diarrhoea medicine adverts?

Is there a watery stool epidemic? Are faeces on the loose?

There must be some kind of intestinal bug going around, because almost every commercial break recently seems to contain an advert for Immodium (and the revolutionary Immodium Gel - the breakthrough in medical science that allows us to take the poo blocker on the move).

So is there an epidemic or is this a response to our societies’ appalling diet? Bizarrely, there also seems to be an increase in the amount of over-the-counter laxatives on sale and on TV - maybe the two are related.

My theory - these two trends are due to either;

a) The dreadful low fibre, high sugar, high fat, high chemical diet our country enjoys or
b) The general public are not very good at self medicating and keep over estimating the dose in a self defeating, and self perpetuating see-saw of poorly controlled bowels.

Written by exmonkey on May 21st, 2006 with 4 comments.
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gilesbooth
#1. May 21st, 2006, at 10:33 PM.

Maybe Immodium sales are up because of people like poo lady Dr Gillian McKeith telling everyone that if they need to use more than one postage-stamp sized piece of loo roll, they are in urgent need of buying her new book, sorry, I mean medical attention.

ditdotdat
#2. May 22nd, 2006, at 12:25 PM.

I’d say it’s socio-psychological and related to the fact that people think that the government has simultaneously too much and too little control over their lives. They respond by reverting to to what Freud described as the ‘Anal stage’ of childhood
development. This also explains why some people go even further back, to the ‘oral stage’ and become preoccupied with their diet.

exmonkey
#3. May 22nd, 2006, at 1:59 PM.

So in effect you are saying that rather than exercise their democratic right vote in order to regain a sense of vicarious political control over their own lives, people are inwardly focusing their need for a feeling of control by obsessing about their rectums?

Can we expect to see commercials encouraging people to shag their mothers, kill their fathers and put out their own eyes?

Mention from Markarayner.com
#4. May 25th, 2006, at 4:51 PM.