My friend, George, cut out an article from a small newspaper. I just had time to give it a glance but was delighted to see that a Vancouver based filmmaker (a woman) had done a 10 minute documentary on psoriasis called the “Invisible Man”. Free for everyone to watch. Doesn’t get better than that….right?
Well, not so fast. When I got home I found (easily) the so-called documentary. A nice man, a terrible disease, his battle with depression, his fear about how his partner feels (she’s supportive)–and his suicidal thoughts, etc.,etc. So far, so good.
But I couldn’t help noticing a few things. For one–you never actually got to see his psoriasis. This was shown by a colored slide superimposed over his body. And then you see him in the doctor’s office. No actual name of a drug is verbalized. But then you see him with completely clear skin–happy, happy guy with his happy wife. A happy ending–just like Hollywood.
And then I watched the credits and right at the very end, in small letters, was the name of a company–Janssen, Inc. The name rang a bell. I googled Janssen, Inc and, surprise!, I found that it is a large pharmaceutical company. Janssen, Inc. is one of the pharmaceutical companies that sponsors the National Psoriasis Foundation.
So, what pretends to be a documentary is, in fact, a very slick bit of advertising for the use of allopathic medication for the treatment of psoriasis.
Nice idea–shame about the deception!
