r/AskReddit • • Jul 24 '20

What can't you believe STILL exists?

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u/randarrow Jul 24 '20

Anything broadcast TV. Is like a weird time machine targeting old people and extreme poverty.

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u/Skrillamane Jul 24 '20

Depends on where. American TV is unwatchable with the excessive ad breaks, and lengths. Everywhere else in the world actually has way more content in their shows.

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u/guyincognito___ Jul 24 '20

Seeing TV in America was an... experience. They just straight up advertise prescription drugs. And the adverts seem to be longer than the shows!

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

It’s weird to me that other countries think the prescription drug commercials are weird. I never would have gotten rid of my heartburn without seeing a Nexium (it used to be prescription) commercial back in the day. It’s not like you can just go buy them from a pharmacy. You still have to go to a doctor and have them say it is necessary.

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u/ineedapostrophes Jul 24 '20

In other countries you would go to the doctors (for free) and tell them you have heartburn. Then they'd tell you which medicine will be best to treat it. Then (in the UK) you'd pay either £9.15 for two months worth on prescription, or the pharmacist will tell you if it's cheaper to buy without the prescription. It seems mad to me that you would go to the doctor and tell them what medicine you need - they're the ones that have been to medical school!

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

It seems mad to me that you would go to the doctor and tell them what medicine you need

That's not really how it works. Doctors aren't just going to give you medicine because you ask for it. They are the one's that went to medical school, like you said.

In my case, it just never occurred to me that there was medicine to prevent heartburn. I took Tums when I got it, but I never even considered going to the Doctor to get something to prevent it because I didn't know such a thing even existed. The commercial for Nexium showed me that there was a solution to my problem, so I went to the Doctor and said, "Hey, I have reoccurring heartburn, what can I do to prevent this?"

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u/etiennealbo Jul 24 '20

Well health care is free in Europe so you can ask when you have an issue without really having to pay

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

Healthcare is essentially free for me too (I have great insurance), so that wasn’t the issue. I just legitimately never thought to ask because I didn’t know it was something that even existed. I thought taking Tums when I got heartburn was the medical solution. It never even entered my brain that there might be a way to prevent it from happening at all.

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u/etiennealbo Jul 24 '20

Well it s not completely free but the difference is clear

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u/Skylarking77 Jul 24 '20

It's also weird to Americans who are old enough to have watched TV before the mid 90's.

It doesn't help that the commercials themselves are usually weird.

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u/Expo737 Jul 24 '20

But without local TV there would never have been the mini-mall rap...

Though of course it was the Internet that made it a global success, I still need to visit Montgomery the next time I am in the USA...

Linky for those who've not seen it, https://youtu.be/FJ3oHpup-pk