Goodbye, Doc

Ever since TV's first commercials, men in white have peered portentously into living rooms and assured viewers that all manner of products--patent medicines and dentifrices, cosmetics, drugs, and even cigarettes--are exactly what the doctor ordered. "For my patients, I recommend . . ." says one white-smocked huckster. As most viewers know but some do not, a genuine doctor or dentist is highly unlikely to risk his professional standing by engaging in such blatant commercialism. In perennial attacks on the phony pitchmen, the American Medical Association had long complained of these crass abuses. Last year the National Association of Broadcasters ordered that actors could go on impersonating scientific types only if the words "A Dramatization" were superimposed on the pitch for at least ten seconds. Advertisers obliged--but the caveat in print proved to have little meaning for most viewers, according to the N.A.B. Last week the N.A.B. again revised its code, in effect unfrocked TV's men and women in white. Henceforth, ruled the N.A.B., all doctors, dentists or nurses appearing in commercials must really be doctors, dentists or nurses.

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