MM+M Podcast 8.31.23: Has filmmaker Richard Lui made the Oppenheimer for mental health?

Hey, it’s Marc…

We’ve spoken before about the mental health crisis in this country, from the national shortage of healthcare providers to the epidemic levels of depression and suicidal ideation among adults and younger people.

One of the most interesting aspects – as it relates to health marketing – is how mental health as a topic has crossed over into mainstream culture.

With every new professional athlete, celebrity, or influencer who opens up about their mental-health struggles on social media, the conversation gets a little less taboo.

And that’s important given the stigma that continues to haunt people who struggle with this disease.

Our guest this week – Richard Lui – is doing much to break down those stigmas even further.

Lui, a journalist, news anchor and former businessman, has recently released the second of his 2 films on mental health.

His 2023 documentary UNCONDITIONAL tackles the subject thru the lens of the caregiver by profiling 3 families, including his own family’s journey.

Jack O’Brien interviews Richard Lui for his experience directing Unconditional, some of the misunderstood aspects of caregiving, why pharma-media collaborations are important, as well as where he seems room for improvement in changing the narrative on mental health.

Lecia’s here with a health policy update.

Hey Marc, today I’ll discuss the historic news that the federal government has officially announced the first 10 drugs that will fall under Medicare price negotiations.

And Jack, what’s on tap for the healthcare social media front?

This week, we’re talking about ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli claiming X (Twitter) has permanently banned his account, the effect of selfies on young people getting plastic surgery and Alice Cooper’s anti-trans comments.

a Marcus

editor at large and welcome to the M&M podcast, medical marketing media, showed at Healthcare marketing writ large,

Hello, and welcome to the M&M podcast. My name is Jack O’Brien. I’m the digital editor at mmm. Please be joined today by Richard Liu of NBC, Richard, how are you doing today? Hey, thanks for having your jack. I appreciate you coming on the show. Obviously, the third M and mmm is media. And, you know, you play an important role, giving your position at NBC, but you also have a new documentary out called unconditional want to start there. If you could give us the inspiration behind producing this documentary, and that we can get into the impact. And some of the other aspects of it, from there,

the annual, Jack on. Mmm, as you bring this important conversation together, we realized that, you know, the the brand of caregiving of the brand of mental health is might be called little hole whom

And, you know, when you bring up the topic with folks, it’s tough to get the second question, right? You say, oh, so what are you doing? You working on a documentary. It’s about mental health and caregiving, right? Getting the second question of into that interest level. I know it’s tough and so the purpose of the documentary is really break open. Hopefully a bit of that whole hum and that that whole whom is also full of haha as well. I mean, in my own journey of taking care of my dad, I got a lot of new laughs out of it. Got a lot of new cries too, but I definitely found that in the whole home. There’s a lot of new, ha, ha. And, and when it comes to just Mental Health,

You know, um, we always talk about it as a weakness without whether we might not say that like when people bring up mental health, you might say, oh man, that’s such a downer such weaknesses and in folks and it’s not, it’s, it’s also a strength. And I think those are the two major. If I were to go 50,000 feet as to why I wanted to discuss it this way in this documentary and it does involve marketing. Right. And the way we Market this, this topic of of health is difficult as, you know, very, very well from what you do to really give us a balanced View. And I don’t mean like, 50/50. I just mean to consider the other stuff with it. Not just the, the difficult or the

whole home stuff. I appreciate you talking about the new ones, as it relates to the mental health, you know, crisis in the country and obviously a lot of the marketers that are in our audience have work,

You know, either on campaigns or different efforts related, to behavioral health and things of that nature. I think the caregiver angle maybe doesn’t get talked about enough when you think about it from that perspective, maybe what are some of the more misunderstood aspects of caregiving? Because like you said, I think a lot of people think of it and they think, oh, this is really heavy. This is dense. It’s very emotional. But you know this is something that millions of Americans go through on a day-to-day basis

Oh, yeah, I think it’s underestimated. We say 53 throughout ARP? Found 5, 3 M. I l l. I o. N and family caregiving space.

but, you know, that’s like five years ago and, you know, as of the last three years, like how many more right, well, and my documentary team, because we’re full of journalists, you know what we did, and also being a former marketer in my, in my previous Life, as a business person,

We modeled it. As, you know, we could be in the high 60s in terms of millions and then you add in the mental health dynamic.

I mean we’re really talking about almost a third of the country.

Because those are going through Mental Health.

And caregiving.

Separately.

If you’re going through caregiving you most certainly are going through a mental health Journey.

And I say that as a journalist and just have also as a caregiver, you know, I I didn’t think I’d be saying, I went through a mental and I’m going through a mental health Journey, right Jack. I mean, that’s a little bit. There’s above your pay grade. I mean, unless you also do a therapy

on the side, but maybe you do. I, I can tell you that I don’t, but I appreciate those that do because they obviously offer a key service there. Can you kind of talk about it? Just from your own perspective, too. Because obviously this is I I wouldn’t say a passion project but you obviously come into it with your own experience that informs you as you’re producing the documentary, how did that go through with, you know, the different interviews that you can conduct in the different angles? You were looking to explore with the project?

I think on the ability to reach the interviewee, which

You, you and me you and I both.

You know, are thinking about, okay well how do I get the best out of this conversation? And

What I realized?

Was that me sharing that? I was a caregiver regardless of the person’s age or

Locality or background or experience that once, I just taped into my personal experience as a caregiver for my father.

And my own mental health Journey that I was able to to have heartier conversations and places that got to the core of why the Two of Us in an interview.

Were going to do well.

And sometimes that might take 15 minutes or 30 minutes, you know, as you know how it goes. Sometimes you can be talking for 10 minutes and finally, you get to that moment where the two of you are really getting the most out of the conversation.

In the case for this documentary, I happen pretty quickly.

and I’m talking like maybe three minutes, two minutes, and we’re talking about

Our.

our new cries, our new laughs or our most difficult moments which

Surprised the heck out of me.

And I, I think, caregiving.

Strangely has that ability to break down. What other, what, what what, what whatever difference is we naturally think make us different in caregiving

that goes away so fast. And can you talk a little bit because this is obviously not your first documentary. You also had Sky Blossom is there a through line? When you look at maybe some of the, The Narrative or the Thematic elements between the two documentaries, as it relates to, you know, subject or anything of that nature.

Thanks for for recognizing. Yeah, so second one, in the first one was just called Sky blossom.

I think the first one educated me as well as the producing team.

About how to cover the topic.

The second movie which is unconditional was a little bit more.

You know what, we’re just gonna do it, we’re just gonna go for it. We’re going to try to show mental health in caregiving because you know this even by itself.

talking about those two topics is way difficult and not, you know, when you’re thinking about the demand for product like this, to put on the marketing hat for a moment,

The supply is plenty. The demand is low.

and when I was thinking about the second movie,

I knew that we were.

Going off into even a more difficult space in terms of interest in the film. And, you know, that’s pretty tough for donors, you know. It’s pretty tough because now we weren’t just saying carry and we’re saying mental, health and caregiving

And the interesting thing.

Is that this has had faster take-up.

Than the first film did admittedly. The first one came out in 2021, it was the most widely distributed feature documentary at the time.

But again, we’re in the middle of covid. And folks, you know, it was a different different environment and today with unconditional, you know, after playing at the White House and the US Capitol and we’re planting on the United Nations next.

That surprised us like we didn’t think, again, that this would have the market demand that it, that we’re seeing so far, not that it’s gargantuan, that’s no Oppenheimer, right? But I wasn’t saying is it’s, you know, it’s because it ain’t three hours long but it’s, it’s, you know, it it’s had more than more interest than we thought it would.

And I wanted to touch

on that too because I know that the Biden Administration is obviously put a significant priority on trying to bolster Mental Health Services across the country and addressing some of those scarcities that you talk about in terms of whether or not they’re enough mental health professionals and people being able to assist those that are suffering from whatever conditions that they’re dealing with, in their lives, to be asked to screen at the White House, you know, obviously, such an honor, but what was that experience? Like how that all come together? What was your reaction to it?

What the heck was I doing there?

I mean that was what it was. I mean we were I was standing in the East Garden. You know, typically we’re used to seeing this. I’m not a White House correspondent, but, you know, I, I’ve seen enough video and been in the white house a couple times. But you know, you never see yourself standing in one of the gardens that we were standing in the East Garden and we had the little Riser with the little presidential, you know, White House logo there and I’m standing there talking and I see a picture of it later and I I just can’t believe it’s happening but

It is like that in the caregiving Community, because we have seen so little and to see our White House, whether it’s an r or a d or an i or whatever you want to call it, our White House.

Saying that caregiving mental health is important by just bringing in the movie to show at what I like to call the most exclusive movie theater in the world with 40 40, something odd seats in it.

We were we were hearts and that maybe we’re heading a better time. Because like you said, Jack, I mean this is this Administration has done more on caregiving and mental health and in military communities as well. Then we’ve seen in our recent history so that that’s that’s a good thing for all the caregivers out there. And again regardless of our dear, I or anything else.

And I’m curious on that front too because obviously there’s been a lot of investment placed in the behavioral health and caregiving space and that’s obviously something that you talked about there is being very welcomed to that Community. Where is there still room for improvement from your own experiences in terms of reporting and talking with some of these people that you know, day in and day out they’re caring for people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to have somebody by their side. Where do we still need to see more investment terms of resources or other capabilities? I think we in not to avoid a very

specific question here is to say Jack that it would be

Culturally we got, we gotta make some cultural investments in what it in the way we perceive what this thing is and to make it more part of our day-to-day. You know, I’m not saying like a 1000, you know, films and movies about caregiving. What I am saying is just to include it into other conversations as part of the conversation. So, and, and that, and then that way, we’ll be able to accept that it is a full-time. If not a more than full-time job for many Americans, and we need to embrace them because they’re part of our economy. If we have more than what I believe, we have up to three quarter trillion, untapped economic value in family, caregiving.

Where are we including those folks? Why aren’t we talking about those folks and if it’s untapped how do we tap it?

And make it part of an important part of what we do. So I think there’s a I would if you gave me another you know one or two million dollars to do something would I what I do another film I might

And it might be more on the narrative side again to try to attack the cultural misunderstandings about it. You know, I throughout the film our theme was Joy despite difficulty.

It’s true.

I I want to go back to something, you talked about, is that kind of cultural change that we need to see. And you use the word narrative which kind of leads into my next question. Talk to us about the narrative change campaign, what went into that and how successful that’s been

that has been

part of our plan from the beginning and, and in order to really have an action-based

Narrative.

Is then to think in the very beginning at the Inception of the project, where will it be seen?

And where will it go? Where does it? Where does the rubber hit the road? And so from the very start, the question was

where,

which streamer will take it.

Which terrestrial will take it, which kabler will take it.

Can we get to the White House? Can we get to the US Capitol?

Okay, if we know that that’s the place where we are going to be able to have a true impact campaign, we can’t have a tree falling in a force.

we’ve got to get it out there and then which is you know, in distribution that is often

Not thought of, in film and documentary, especially most documentarians. And this is not a slight on them at all, they’re great storytellers and so they finish their documentary and then they don’t don’t the people just come, don’t they just show up.

And so our the way we approached it different and I do think of it. It’s a result of my time working in in Tech and City bank and then going to business school is to approach this as a business opportunity and to use those very lessons for something that’s very Community focused. And so we we focus on distribution knowing that that is the way in a, in a social impact campaign. People have to see it. How are you going to impact people? They don’t see it and it’s not available to them. And so our partners are not only Fortune 500. There are also some of the largest ngos in in the country ARP being involved. Alzheimer’s Association being involved, and then all of the military groups, blue star families, and the others that come alongside that to help us get it out there.

And obviously it’s powerful to be able to have that sort of backing and any effort that you do, when it comes to something like this on a subject such as this, I want to go back as you obviously have the background as a marketer and, you know, that’s primarily who our audience are Pharma and biotech marketers. What are some of the key lessons I guess that you can impart to them as they may be tackle, these issues going forward as it relates to mental health, but certainly on the caregiving front too. It’s not like this issue is going away and maybe they’re not as well versed as they should be. Is there any sort of advice that you would pass along to them?

You know, I’ve really appreciated how you mentioned farmer has leaned in on a topic like this.

For instance, a PSI EMD serono.

Cigna in terms of a healthcare insurance company. And others have said, yeah, we we think this is the right thing to do and have really been big partners. For instance, a size has been with us for years now. I mean, I think maybe five years that have been committed to this and so for marketers on the side of Pharma

These are some of the things that fit your strategy very well in in that, it’s the intangibles that you got to reach.

That can Bridge what your products are.

In real in the real world if you will. And sometimes we forget that and that’s okay because I understand when you’re so far depending where you are in the value chain, it’s tough to remember these these intangibles and caregiving to for storytellers is not is unlike most other story types.

It really takes in.

Almost all of our senses as humans to be able to communicate what it is in reality yet. So much of the products that are out in the space for you brought the the sector of farm of Pharma

is to address a lot of the the difficulties that these families structures are facing. And so as you know, the decisions made for the products that come out of Pharma are most often at least in the caregiving space.

Well, that’s kind of obvious.

Includes the caregiver.

they’re part of the decision Tree in a big part of the decision tree and so,

These kind of collaborations with cultural players movies, you know, media, which I is why it’s part of, mmm, it’s so important. And I think those those collaborations really do pay off

now it’s such a, it’s such a key insight there. In terms of, you know, it’s not just one aspect of the industry carrying along. They’re really as a Confluence and intersection between all these different Dynamics. Richard, I’ve really enjoyed having you on the Pod here and being able to discuss the documentary in the work you’re doing in this space. I wanted to give you the final word in terms of, you know where can we see the documentary? Where can people in our audience go see it. And if there’s anything else you want to pass along as a relates to the mental health care, giving space, that maybe we hadn’t touched on yet?

Yeah, Jack, thanks. You can catch it on PBS, passports on Amazon Prime. We hope to be getting into peacock and I mentioned earlier that we’ll be

planning on playing it at the United Nations for their International caregiving Day in October. I would say, you know, if there’s something we’d love to see is

To have screenings.

At any organization or business of this film to broaden out the way. We talk about the spaces that affect.

Um the target markets for for Farm Pharma companies and healthcare companies and it it would it I think would help not only the internal head count and in the in the team.

To understand deeper how their products affect family. Units can also be a product, which we’ve seen with our partners, like Cigna and acai on the in the in the value chain. So if it’s your if it’s your bundlers, if it’s your your Regional leads

To help them, bring in their collaborators, their Partners in their respective regions. This is a way to do something that is Arts involved.

And not panel, not, you know, Workshop, it’s an art space thing and that and I think broaden the conversation and show what we found, how certain companies are leaders in in thinking through the entire ecosystem, that, that their business addresses.

Excellent. Well Richard again I really appreciate your insights being able to speak on this topic with such eloquence and you know, passion and obviously I wish you the best. As you take this film across, not only the country but it sounds like the world with being able to bring it to the United Nations. And certainly hope that if you have another film down the line or other work in the caregiving space that we can highlight, we’d love to have you back on the show. Thanks Jack. And thanks for understanding where this might

fit in to the to your conversation over. Mmm. Because I know it’s a little bit outside the center, if you will now. Absolutely.

No. It’s the third mm. It needs all the respect and and treatment that deserves. So we’re glad that we’re able to include Jenna

cheers. Thanks so much.

Health policy update with Lesha Bushak.

The federal government has announced the first 10 drugs that will be included in Medicare’s new price negotiating provision as dictated by the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year. On Tuesday, Medicare said these 10 drugs will be the first to have negotiated lower prices starting in 2026.

The drugs include Bristol Myers Squibb’s blood thinner Eliquis, which accounts for the highest Medicare gross spend right now at $16.5 billion. Next is Jardiance, Boehringer Ingelheim’s diabetes and heart failure drug, which accounts for $7.1 billion of Medicare gross spending.

Janssen’s Xarelto, Merck’s Januvia, AstraZeneca’s Farxiga, Novartis’ Entresto, Amgen’s Enbrel, Pharmacyclics’ Imbruvica, Janssen’s Stelara and Novo Nordisk’s Fiasp are also on the list. Four of the ten are diabetes drugs, while others treat blood clots, heart failure, rheumatoid arthritis and blood cancers.

Together these 10 drugs cost Medicare more than $50 billion from June 2022 through May 2023 – making up about 20% of Medicare Part D spending. And people on Medicare spent $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs on these drugs in 2022.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement that QUOTE “today marks a significant and historic moment.”

[Potential byte? Pulled from CNBC interview. Not sure if we are allowed to use audio from a CNBC interview?

BROOKS (0:54 – 01:24): This is going to be the first time that Medicare is able to negotiate drug prices… We followed the law, which was to look at which are the top-spending drugs in the Medicare prescription drug program, which drugs have been on the market for at least 7 years. And we’re really excited to announce the drugs that have been selected today.]

The manufacturers of the drugs have 30 days to agree to participate in the negotiations – or else they will have to face excise taxes or withdraw their drugs from Medicare coverage.

If the companies agree to the negotiations, Medicare will announce the new discounted prices of the drugs on Sept 1, 2024. Those discounts may range from 25% to 60% off a drug’s list price. I’m Lecia Bushak, Senior Reporter at MM+M.

And this is the part of the broadcast when we welcome Jack O’Brien to tell us what’s trending on healthcare social media.

Hey Marc, following up on something we discussed a couple of episodes ago: Eminem has reportedly requested that his music be removed from an agreement with licensor BMI after Republican presidential candidate and former Roivant Sciences CEO Vivek Ramaswamy went viral for rapping ‘Lose Yourself’ at the Iowa State Fair earlier this month.

Also just in: Damar Hamlin, months removed from a cardiac arrest suffered on Monday Night Football, has made the Buffalo Bills’ 53-man roster.

Additionally, we have a couple celebrity health updates: 

In recent days we learned that a congenital heart defect was the cause of Bronny James’ cardiac arrest on July 24, with a James family spokesperson saying there is confidence he will make a full recovery and return to basketball soon.

Also, Elton John was hospitalized after a fall in his Italian villa, former One Direction member Liam Payne was hospitalized for a ‘serious’ kidney infection, leading him to postpone his tour and Duran Duran’s Andy Taylor said his prostate cancer was ‘asymptomatic’.

This week, we’re talking about a favorite topic on this show: ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli.

On Monday, Shkreli claimed that his original account on X (formerly Twitter) has been permanently banned following a “series of back-and-forth exchanges between Shkreli and representatives of the platform.”

Shkreli’s old account @MartikShkreli has been banned since 2017 for the alleged harassment of Teen Vogue editor Lauren Duca.

In a press release, Shkreli criticized X owner Elon Musk for failing to live up to his promise of allowing free speech on the social media platform and loosening previous content moderation policies. 

“Elon has been very clear and vocal about the fact that his platform is one for free speech, but his actions and the actions of X officials prove otherwise,” says Shkreli. “The fact that he’s aware of this decision and is standing by flies in the face of everything he’s previously said in that regard. My original account, while humorous, did not pose any violent threats. So, the fact of the matter is, I’ve been censored for doing nothing wrong. If Elon truly wanted his platform to be the embodiment of free speech, my account would have been reinstated.” 

This latest Shkreli headline comes weeks after his former company, Vyera Pharmaceuticals, sealed a deal to sell the rights of Daraprim — the antiparasitic drug that the firm famously price-hiked in 2015.

Yeah, it’s interesting that Martin Scully, is now having beef with Elon Musk, because it just seems like Elon Musk is always having beef with someone, but you would think that Martin shkreli in Elon Musk were more similar than the hard difference like personality wise. So it’s interesting that they’re having beef now, but from my understanding Mark, Martin Scully, does still have an account? Just not his official one, right? Because he’s been pretty aggressively posting on X on this other account. Even just today, posting something cleaning that, you know Elon Musk has reinstated other Twitter crowns that were originally banned but that his hasn’t been reinstated.

And arguing that the quote free speech absolutists rhetoric has disappeared from acts. It seems like he’s going to be pushing this.

For a while. It’s also interesting to note that Donald Trump just reappeared on X as well in the last week, which was, you know, musk’s decision to reinstate his account was pretty controversial. I think the difference here though is that Martin shkreli was actively like harassing and cyber bullying, a specific person on Twitter and that’s the reason why his account was suspended, not so much. I think this like free speech argument. So it’ll be interesting to see how ex responds to that and what they end up doing with his account.

And this is an even the first time that we’ve had this kind of strange crossover between Martin shkreli and Elon Musk. I think we all got pitched about a month or so ago. When there was still the conversation about whether Elon and Mark Zuckerberg were going to have their cage match that accompany affiliated with Martin shkreli had put together an AI demonstration of basically what that fight would look like and so I again kind of to your point Lesha. I don’t know if he’s necessarily pining for Elon. I think that there would have been a lot of overlap between the two of them, but

Clearly there’s room for beef. Mark, where do you come down on this kind of strange encounter?

Well, he, you know, as you guys pointed out, I should point it out. He, you know, was really banned because he was trolling somebody and, and, and it crossed over, you know, into really cyberbullying. He kind of doesn’t seem to understand the difference between that and just kind of having provocative discussions on social media. It is kind of surprising that, you know, Trump is back. You know, welcome back but not skrilla, you know, when you compare the two and there, you know, level of vocal each one is, and how, you know, I’ll kill her, they are so to speak, and they’re tweets, but as you pointed out Jack and you’re reporting on scrilli, you know, with his last company called drug, like came out and kind of fluent in the face of the fact that he was facing a lifetime ban from being in the farmer industry working in the farm industry again, and the ft

See earlier this year, you know, file the motion to hold him in contempt for failing to provide the agency with information determined to determine whether he is violating that permanent ban from working in the industry periods. Again, kind of not playing by the rules. So I take it with a grain of salt, whatever. He says obviously and I it’ll be interesting to see how X comes down on this. Whether it’s, you know, kind of kind of go all in for free speech or you know, kind of draw a line at his brand of you know Voca tour.

Yeah, it’s interesting that he’s since he’s been released from prison last year, there’s been these multiple attempts through drug like through his substack through this AI bout of musk and Zuckerberg of trying to recapture. I think some sort of public attention, not really sure how well that has played. Obviously we’re talking about on the podcast but that’s all. So in light of him, you know, having some sort of beef with the richest man on the face of the Earth, so it’ll be interesting.

One other thing, I just wanted to know is that when I thrown this into the mix just yesterday in terms of being able to put it in our script, he popped up in my tiktok algorithm because he has a active tiktok account too, and talking about whistleblowers and keeping your mouth shut and not being a snitch. So he’s he’s everywhere. And he’s everywhere and everything for attention. Isn’t it? Exactly? So can’t escape him online.

If you’ve spent any time on TikTok, you’ve most likely come across hundreds of videos about cosmetic surgeries. 

From rhinoplasties (nose jobs) to “Barbie Botox,” TikTok is a deep well of videos that show people getting a countless array of cosmetic and aesthetic procedures to perfect their “selfie face.”

As a result, cosmetic surgeries among young people have soared in recent years. According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), which releases an annual survey on the rates of such procedures, there was a significant increase in demand for facial plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures in 2022 – similar to the rise in 2021.

That same survey found 75% of facial plastic surgeons reported a rise in the number of patients under the age of 30 who are seeking injections and cosmetic procedures. Indeed, trends like lip flips, nose jobs, blepharoplasties and “Brotox” are incredibly popular on the site.

However, experts have raised concerns not only about the damaging effects of this rise on mental health and self-esteem, but also about the physical dangers of certain surgeries. 

Brazilian butt lifts, or BBLs, are well-known to be harmful and sometimes fatal. Yet, the procedure has still seen a rise in popularity in recent years despite those dangers.

Dr. Anthony Youn, perhaps the most popular plastic surgeon influencer on TikTok with more than 8 million followers, is also known for raising concerns about what procedures are unnecessary and even dangerous for young patients. 

In one video, he describes how scarring from lip lifts should deter younger people from getting the procedure done.

In another video with more than 120,000 likes, Youn lists the three worst plastic surgeries for teenagers, aiming to prevent young people from mindlessly attempting them without being aware of the risks. 

He notes that liposuction can lead to permanent scarring; the BBL has the highest death rate; and breast implants can lead to more surgeries in the future. 

“Plastic surgery is serious shi*,” he writes in the caption.

It’s likely the rise in cosmetic surgeries won’t go away anytime soon, as TikTok and Instagram “selfie face” continues to influence younger generations. 

Ultimately, experts emphasize that if young people are going to get the procedures done regardless, that it’s imperative to find a qualified surgeon.

Yeah, you know, I think it’s a trend that has definitely skyrocketed in recent years and it probably is not going to be going in a way anytime soon. I mean, even if you go on Reddit or Instagram or Facebook, you see tons of young people talking about how they want to get nose jobs or I mean these are like teenagers even already with several procedures under their belt, at a very young age, kind of driven by this like tiktok selfie face culture and I imagine that will probably continue. So given that, you know, it’s good that there are some social media influencers, like Dr. Anthony Yoon, who has a huge following on eight million people? He’s probably like the plastic surgeon that you always see pop up when it comes to, like, reaction videos to cosmetic procedures on tiktok.

That he kind of provides a bit of a dose of reality to his audience by saying, hey, like you don’t always need to get this type of procedure done or these are the risks that come with these procedures. So it’s good that that people like that on the site are out there, trying to kind of clarify the risks to the young people.

But yeah, I mean I don’t see this really stopping anytime soon

and Mark, I’m curious on that point because to to luscious point eight million followers, I think a lot of people probably get on social media and they get a lot of oh people are listening to me. I have this sort of swaying attention but to use it for good in this way to actually pull aside a young adult or a teenager and say this is a procedure that could have you know kind of a long lasting impact on your health or your appearance and you know your only a child or a teenager at that point. What responsibility do you think it falls into with hcp’s or Brands? Be able to come out and say, like, we’re recognizing this trend but, you know, you have to be informed before you make these decisions.

Yeah. No. It’s an excellent question. I mean, social media just like any form of promotion is going to seems to be a vehicle for increasing demand. You know it increases inbound inquiries, amongst hcp’s for these kinds of things. You know you one would hope you know which is the old you know, tagline and TV.

E-commerce, you know, ask your doctor about unfortunately, with a lot of these user-generated tiktoks, you don’t even have that. So you would. So it’s a more even more important that voices like Dr. Yunes are heard, you know, giving that that dose of context and, you know, just reporting a story this week on the new obesity medications, not all of them knew but the GOP one medications and some of the clinicians. I’m speaking to are saying that, you know, all the efforts that the Farm industries doing to promote them is a good thing in terms of creating that inbound traffic to them. And it forces them to be able to get learned on learn it on the topic so that they can answer those questions, you know, for their patients and educate them properly. But you know the flip side is that not everybody is Consulting their clinician before making these kinds of choices. I mean ultimately they have to go to a clinician to get the you know the surgery in this case the the Rhino Plus or whatever it is. So it’s it’s like any medium it has

Has good good aspects and bad aspects and that has to be taken into account.

And I think it’s interesting, you bring up the kind of tie-in. I know we talked a few weeks ago about the weight loss Trends and about this kind of what I think. Maybe some people would see as as vanity in terms of, I want to lose weight and maybe I’m using a drug that’s off label. I’m sure that there’s a lot of tie-in too. With people that are say, oh I just want my nose to be a little thinner. It’s not really for any other reason than aesthetic and cosmetic purposes. But if you’re a teenager or somebody that doesn’t know, the full risks are dangers involved,

you know, that could be a pretty serious decision you make, right? These are cosmetic aspects, those, you know, obesity, something differently, different entirely giving that, you know, it’s a disease that has, from what I learned 236 different, you know, Downstream impacts, you know, from hypertension to, you know, diabetes to everything else. So but these cosmetic procedures, nevertheless have serious, medical ramifications, and they need to be treated as such.

Vampyre Cosmetics cuts ties with rock icon Alice Cooper after he said gender-affirming care for trans kids was a ‘fad.’

In a recent interview with Stereogum, Cooper said trying to find your identity is confusing as a child or teenager but dismissed gender-affirming care and the “whole woke thing.”

“I’m understanding that there are cases of transgender, but I’m afraid that it’s also a fad, and I’m afraid there’s a lot of people claiming to be this just because they want to be that. I find it wrong when you’ve got a six-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him telling him, “Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be,” he said.

In the interview, Cooper also made anti-trans remarks about access to public bathrooms.

Days after the piece was published, the Long Beach, California-based cosmetics company let go of Cooper as a collaborator in a post on social media.

“In light of recent statements by Alice Cooper we will no​​​​​​​​​ longer be doing a makeup collaboration. We stand with all members of the LGBTQIA+ community and believe everyone should have access to healthcare. All pre-order sales will be refunded.”

This controversy also coincides with another rock icon, Santana, making anti-trans comments at a recent concert in New Jersey before ultimately apologizing.