Those "Monoclonal Antibodies" Commercials Bother The Hell Out Of Me

Hey, have you seen those Regeneron commercials?  I see them in the late afternoon/early evening, during the pre-early evening local news and Jeopardy!, which runs 4:30 here in Minneapolis-St. Paul.  It's the one where, for some goddamn reason, all these people on screen keep talking about "monoclonal antibodies" --- like it's a mantra, and like it's a household name.  And then in one commercial someone informs an elderly woman that she has COVID-19 before (and I am taking this off memory, so I could be wrong) that, uh, this clinic representative tells her about "monoclonal antibodies."  And in another commercial someone jogging on the beach calls up her grandmother, who tells her the devastating news that she got the 'Rona, to which the granddaughter says, "You need to get on monoclonal antibodies!"

I could embed the commercials onto here, but I find them so strange and off-putting I do not want to give them the publicity.  It feels as though these "monoclonal antibodies" do work in preventing anyone who has been stricken with COVID-19 from getting seriously sick.  Lying about its efficacy is not what bothers me about these advertisements.  Instead, well, I've got a bunch of other things that grind my gears about 'em:

• If you're fully vaccinated, do you really need "monoclonal antibodies?"
• Why repeat the phrase "monoclonal antibodies" so often in these spots?  It makes the actors in them sound like they're in a cult.
• Why is this spot trying to make the clunky phrase "monoclonal antibodies" a thing?  Stop trying to make "monoclonal antibodies" happen!
• The overacting by the grandmothers is amateurish.  Maybe I am scoffing at the diagnosis these characters have because I'm fully vaxxed and so I don't care, but the commercial is making it sound as though they have Stage 4 cancer and they're going to die by the end of the week.  Not saying COVID isn't potentially a death sentence, but let's just say that you don't need Meryl Streep to convey the supposed gravity of such news with authenticity.

And this all leads up to the most important question: Why in the hell is Regeneron trying to sell itself?  A treatment staving off death from the coronavirus isn't the kind of product you can just buy off the shelf.  In fact, it's not really a product.  You can't really get it when you want to get it, you know?  You have to come down with the coronavirus, and that's when the Regeneron becomes something you want to have.  You don't really have a choice of when you use it.

But that doesn't stop Regeneron from planting in the brains of people (well, anti-vaxxers, since people who are fully vaccinated probably won't come down with the virus to the point they need to be hospitalized) that if and when they come down with COVID, they have the God-given right to DEMAND from those damned doctors and nurses that they need this "monoclonal antibody."  And again, I'm not saying they're falsely advertising.  But doesn't it seem so damn skeevy that they're pushing this drug as a consumer item in order to make a buck off those teetering on the edge of death?  Regeneron isn't the only one; really, any drug manufacturer that is advertising on TV is guilty of hawking with the toxic mix of fear and empowerment.  I'm singling out Regeneron because 1) I'm seeing their stupid commercials every day and 2) it is being advertised as treating a plague whose pandemic we're still under, and so I am disgusted by the opportunism behind this ad campaign.

No, I will not just not watch if I don't like it.  I think they need to pull these ads, then tell drug companies they can't advertise on television anymore.  Seriously.