Rant

As if our TVs weren't already crammed with personal injury attorney commercials--featuring suited sharks hovering over accident scenes like angels, turning into tornadoes, mugging with their dogs and children and, perhaps worst of all, making cute anagrams out of their names ("ROK your lawsuit with Riley Orlando Kirsten attorneys at law!")--now we hapless viewers have to contend with yet another wave of them.

After Merck's pain medication Vioxx was linked to heart attacks and pulled from the market, the attorneys smelled money and the adfest began. Certainly, victims who took the drug deserve recompense from a pharmaceutical giant that apparently put profits before safety. Still, this sudden wave of hastily produced attorney commercials, chock-full of scrolling instructions and solemn voice-overs, looks like a feeding frenzy that's downright demoralizing. It's enough to make you feel nostalgic for those ads for payday loan agencies and used car dealers. Sigh.--Andrew Kiraly