Thanks, everyone, for thinking about this and expressing your thoughts to Dey, to the FDA, and/or to others.
One thing that DD pointed out was (and this was ENTIRELY uncoached, I just showed her the ad-- no titling, no preface, no nothing); "Wow. Way to make it seem as though
this doesn't interfere with ANYTHING in a person's life. It makes us look like total WHINERS if we don't live like <hand gestures> THAT."
She also had some choice things to say about the obvious extensions to gun safety... auto insurance, health insurance, etc. Yes, she went on for quite some time, once she stopped that initial speechless spluttering in inchoate fury.
This pathologically cheery "this is NO! BIG! DEAL!" attitude is fairly classic in the context of FAAN rhetoric, too, though, and it's a prime reason why we dropped our membership when DD was but a tiny tot.
They clearly weren't interested in OUR experiences with food allergies. Our experiences were so profoundly COUNTER to that cheery, Stepford-esque worldview of how to manage allergies that we were distinctly
persona non grata.
SO what if they alienate kids who can't GO to the party with a cake made from "who knows what"? It's not like anyone with a reaction history like THAT is ever going to stop carrying epinephrine anyway. Why try harder, YK?
Which on the one hand, I understand as an outreach thing. I get that they want to reach the people (as becca pointed out) who don't think that they NEED to be carrying epi because they are determined to "live their lives" in spite of FA.
I just don't think it is necessary to take a giant crap on those of us who don't
ever have that luxury by virtue of our (or our child's) unfortunate circumstances (being much more sensitive than average, being inconveniently allergic to a non-top-8 allergen, and/or not "outgrowing" those pesky ubiquitous allergens like wheat, soy, or milk). Way to make life
even harder for the subset of people whose lives are ALREADY HARDER THAN MOST people with the condition. Way to make them have to work that much harder to gain the cooperation of those around them.
Yeah. Too bad we
choose to be such a bunch of PITA's. We should just... lighten up and carry MORE epinephrine.
Idiocy.
<fuming>