Why CVS and Senators Lie
I saw a CVS Health commercial today. It was a promotion patting themselves on the back for eliminating tobacco products from their stores 10 years ago. Bravo.
The problem though, is that’s not the only addictive carcinogen they sell. Alcohol and ultra processed foods that are laced with chemicals and added sugar, line their shelves and are just as deadly and addictive as cigarettes. This self-congratulating as a show of their “commitment to health” is so nefarious.
It reminds me of this clip where Senator Chris Murphy is standing in front of the closed USAID building with a group of people in protest. He says:
“The people get to decide how we defend the United States of America. The people get to decide how their tax payer money gets spent. Elon Musk does not get to decide”
Do we though? I don’t recall deciding, or agreeing for that matter, to send my tax dollars to fund a war and a genocide. There are many other places I and my fellow Americans would rather spend their money.
But that’s what these companies and politicians do. They tell you what you want to hear while omitting the truth. They play to our emotions. CVS is making us feel like, “Wow, the was a bold move. They must be really committed to health.” While ignoring all of the other harmful products they sell in their stores.
Murray is getting us angry at “Elon Musk who isn’t elected and doesn’t get to decide where our tax dollars go!” Leaving out the part that he and his colleagues decide, not us or Elon Musk, and their decisions are increasingly less aligned with the will of the people.
I just finished reading The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. Here’s an excerpt that stuck out on the topic.
“Teenage smoking is one of the great, baffling phenomena of modern life… To address that problem, then, we’ve restricted and policed cigarette advertising, so its a lot harder for tobacco companies to lie. We’ve raised the price of cigarettes and enforced the law against selling tobacco to minors, to try to make it much harder for teens to buy cigarettes. And we’ve run extensive public health campaigns on television and radio and in magazines to try and educate teens about the dangers of smoking.”
If we can do it for cigarettes. If we could demonize them, restrict them, and tax them, then why can’t we do it for alcohol and ultra processed poisonous foods that we know are killing us? Why can’t we make it just as difficult to drink or eat your way into an early death as we did for smoking?
If Chris Murphy and his colleagues can stand outside of the USAID building in protest, surely they can stand outside of Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Starbucks, Kelloggs, Kraft, Pepsi, and voice their concern over the increasing amounts of processed foods in American’s diets, the deleterious impact they hav on our health, and demand change!
He might say something like, “Big Food, Big Ag, and Big Beverage don’t get to decide what food we grow, how we grow it, and what ends up on our shelves, the people get to decide!”
But of course he would never do that.
Murray is no more interested in doing something so “controversial” as restricting alcohol or processed foods as he is telling us the truth about where our taxes go and who decides. It could mean career suicide. It would mean having integrity, doing what’s right, telling the truth, and helping the people you were elected to serve, even when it might cost you.
CVS doesn’t want you to know that there are other things in their stores that are just as dangerous as cigarettes. They just want you to think they care, and to think about them when you think about your health. They’re just looking for another way to convince you to walk through their doors, instead of Walgreens. Even though they all sell the same poison.
The only thing they are really interested in is filling your prescription(s) and having you buy something addictive to keep you coming back for more. Nobody is looking out for your health. It’s on you to do it for yourself.