Scott Hardie | May 5, 2003
Is anyone else a little bothered by the advertising by the makers of Zyrtec and other allergy medications that encourage people to define themselves by their allergies? "Hi, I'm a pollen-ragweed-dust." There are many people who define themselves by what brand names they purchase, and as teenagers most of us probably defined ourselves by what musical acts we liked, but this is a little worse, and not just because the company is promoting this behavior. This encourages people to define themselves by their need for certain medication. Should we define ourselves by our deficiencies? Maybe I should just change my name on this site to "obesity-arrythmia-acne-lazyeye." Most advertising for medical and cosmetic products tries to convince us that we have various deficiencies (I love The Onion's take on teeth whitening), but the allergy commercials want them to take over our identities. That strikes me as going too far. Should I add "deluded" to my new name?

Jackie Mason | May 5, 2003
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Anna Gregoline | May 6, 2003
LOL, Jackie, I LOVE the term "tannorexics," and I'm totally going to use it!

Anna Gregoline | May 6, 2003
I also read another great word today - "I grew up in Trailerparkistan."

Jackie Mason | May 8, 2003
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