RFK Jr. made ending pharma advertising a central pillar of his independent presidential run and, later, the MAHA agenda after teaming up with Donald Trump.
It’s unclear whether Kennedy and Trump could actually achieve this via executive order, as any executive action is likely to run up against First Amendment restrictions on government suppression of so-called “free speech,” as pharma lobbyists frame drug ads.
Related: Vaxxed Healthcare Workers 27% MORE Likely to Contract Flu: Study
However, there is another route, much less likely to face the same roadblocks: federal legislation.
Via U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (emphasis added):
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) today introduced the End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act, legislation that would ban prescription drug advertising on television, radio, print, digital platforms and social media. The bill would also answer Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s repeated calls to end prescription drug advertising, a position he promoted while campaigning for President Trump in 2024...
In 2010, Eli Lilly spent $205 million on direct-to-consumer ads and made $3.2 billion in sales for the antidepressant drug Cymbalta, despite Food and Drug Administration (FDA) findings that the company’s ads made unsupported and misleading claims of effectiveness and minimized its safety risks. Merck spent $300 million marketing the painkiller Vioxx and made $2.5 billion in sales, despite finding in 2000 that their product raised the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Dr. David Graham, a senior FDA official, testified in 2004 that Merck’s failure to stop selling Vioxx had resulted in as many as 55,000 unnecessary deaths from heart attacks and stroke.
Of course, the press release failed to mention the elephant in the room, which is the COVID shots. But that’s not surprising, given the source.
Related: WHO Accuses Anti-Vaxxers of 'Anti-Science Aggression,' Calls Them 'Killing Force'
What is true in the press release is the rhetorical pressure applied that RFK Jr. explicitly promised to end the advertising hustle during last election cycle, including after teaming up with President Trump.
Let's get President Trump back in the White House and me to DC so we can ban pharmaceutical advertising. pic.twitter.com/Qp7fj9xskU
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 3, 2024
Letting Bernie Sanders and the populist left movement that he (allegedly) represents take the W on a total ban on pharma advertising would be political malpractice, not to mention a moral failing.
This is an oft-overlooked point: The billions of ad bucks funneled to legacy media were fundamental to the mass COVID psy-op that was perpetrated on the American people.
Propagandizing the masses is secondary to the primary purpose of this financial transaction, which is ensuring favorable coverage from the so-called news media so that pharmaceutical orthodoxy is not only never questioned but is promulgated as fact.
Why would weapons contractor Raytheon — which sells its tech to governments, not individual consumers — be advertising on television using, of all people, Larry Bird as some kind of avatar of what it does? The company never actually mentions what it does. And even if it did, how many viewers are buying ballistic missiles?So what is the point of this exercise?
Of course, it’s buying loyalty from the legacy so-called news media.
In turn, the media never objects to any war at any time for any alleged cause. On the contrary, it actively promotes war at all turns.
Ditto for any hot new pharma product, no matter how dangerous or untested or counterproductive.
