The advertisement was effective. A woman talks about her cancer. A doctor gives her two months to live. Then her sister makes her an appointment at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. They care for her. They conduct tests. They overturn the findings of the doctor who gave her two months to live. They tell her, “You don’t have an expiration date.” She rejoices. Images of her smiling and doing happy things, knowing now she has no expiration date. At the end of the commercial she says, “Health is everything.”
I stare at the TV in disbelief. I say it out loud, “Everyone has an expiration date. It’s the second date on your grave.” Bodies do not live forever; they eventually wear out, break down and quit. Ask any hospice nurse. And her belief that ‘health is everything’ reminded me of this comment from Jurgen Moltmann:
“True health is the strength to live, the strength to suffer, and the strength to die. Health is not a condition of my body; it is the power of my soul to cope with the varying condition of that body.”
Physical health is good. Medicine is good. Cancer is bad. Death is bad. But death is real too, and it is not good to live as if death is not real. No body lives in a fantasy land with no expiration date, except in the world of advertising.
You know, I never viewed the comment on the expiration date in that way. I assumed that the commnet meant that the woman’s other doctor–who gave her two months to live–was a malpractitioner. But, of course, the underlying message was that the woman would not die–ever. You do not need God if you have a Cancer Treatment Center.
I remember something that Richard Simmons said–he was a popular aerobics instructor and had himself lost a lot of weight through exercise–about advertised diet books and pills that give people false hope about losing weight easily. He said, “I hope there’s a special place in hell for them.”
Maybe the woman will not die in two months, but she will die eventually. God is everything.
….i suppose the fear of dying fosters all sorts of niche markets and ‘opportunities’ for those willing to exploit the human delimna…there have been several times within the past 2 years that i thought i was going to suddenly die (sudden arrhythma)…the panic was intense and the fear profound..my resonse was always the same..”Oh God!..Lord! Help me!!..please”..my impulse is to move my body in some fashion as if to shake it off and keep myself from slipping away…it would last only a few seconds but in those few seconds i was in a surreal state of shock/surprise and fear…as a believer in Christ my response to my seeming untimely death both surprises and disappoints me and i have employed various known psychological mechanisms to trivialize my reaction but i think if we are truthful we all fear death to some degree or another..
Melanie, yes context is everything. In context, he only meant ‘you will not die in two months.’ But it came across as more of an absolute statement in the commercial. Often, I think, advertising makes startling claims.
MIke, I think we fear dying more than death. I was with a man today as he died. His death was peaceful.
I have not seen that ad, but have noticed that many clinics and hospitals now do ads in various media boasting about their abilities to perform miracle cures. I know doctors who also boast of miraculous abilities. And, of course, drug companies are leading the way.
When someone we love dies, it hurts so bad. To even think of death causes feelings of grief and anxiety. We want to fight or flee. For good reason, death is called the final enemy.
…I think we fear dying more than death”..Yes!…excellent point Chris… “We want to fight or flee. For good reason, death *(dying)* is called the final enemy.”