Maybe this isn’t just in the South, but it’s something we’ve never seen before: TV ads for lap bands. A lap band, or a gastric band, is a device to limit weight gain:
The placement of the band causes the creation of a small pouch at the top of the stomach that holds approximately 110 to 220 grams of food each meal. This pouch fills with food quickly and the band slows the passage of food from the pouch to the lower part of the stomach. As the upper part of the stomach registers as full, the message to the brain is that the entire stomach is full and this sensation helps the person to be hungry less often, to feel full more quickly, to eat smaller portions, and lose weight over time.
It’s not the procedure itself that strikes one as strange, as much as the fact that there are ads on TV for what is, in effect, a “major gastrointestinal surgical operation”. One would probably have the same reaction if there were TV ads for vasectomies or tubal ligation. It certainly gets one’s attention.
The fact that it sounds like they say “Get a lap dance” when you first hear the ad probably doesn’t hurt, either.