Episode 75: Doctor Kim

Doctor Kim recently raised concerns when she tweeted a personal message containing an endorsement for a morning-sickness drug and someone revealed that the drug company actually paid her for her endorsement.  Although it seemed to be a conflict of interest, she is a widely trusted…wait, she is not a doctor?!  Hold on, she's just a celebrity getting paid to pretend her opinion about some certain product is actually high on the list of reasons people with working brains would purchase that product?  So, why is that causing any sort of stir?  

That is most certainly not a conflict of interests.  Her primary interest is getting money, and the drug company's primary interest is selling drugs to make money, so this seems to be a happy marriage of complimentary interests.  Neither drug companies nor celebrities have ever been known to concern themselves with something so silly as actual people when money is on the table, or under the table, or has the remotest possibility of someday being anywhere near the table.

If you're looking to celebrity tweets for guidance on anything, you probably need to step away from social media for a few minutes and go out into the world to experience it for yourself.  People who get paid to be whatever the people who pay them want them to be are probably not the most trustworthy sources of information, and the people paying those people, obviously, are even less trustworthy.

Here's the thing, I'm not concerned that not-doctor Kim tweeted for pay about some drug she may or may not actually use, because that's just how things work when you are famous.  What concerns me is the fact that people are concerned.  You see, I assume most people would read that tweet for what it is, a commercial, and not as sage medical advise from a medical professional with actual knowledge and expertise.  From the tenor of some responses I've seen, it would seem there are people out there who would read it as the latter.  

If you are one of those people, there is still hope.  You can change.  It's really quite simple.  All you need to do is set aside your social media drug of choice, go outside, breathe actual air, look at actual things, talk to actual people, and be an actual person who does actual things.  In no time at all, you will discover you have an actual brain of your own, one you can use without any input at all from celebrity advertising puppets dangling from the golden strings of corporate profiteers.