Friday, May 18, 2007

I'll have some of that!

It finally happened. I saw an advertisement for a prescription drug where they list the side effects, and they included, right up front, "may cause death." No, really? Death? Not nausea, rashes, headaches, or erections lasting longer than four hours, but you came at us with "death?" You didn't even mention other side effects, maybe squeezing it between "diarrhea" and "numbness?" You didn't think that would be a turn-off, pointing out that in return for lessening my arthritis, I could also accept a trip 'cross the river Acheron?

In fact, the whole ad ended up being so bad that I couldn't really believe that it was a legitimate advertisement. It was twice as long as an average commercial, and featured the motto "Understand the Risks. See the Benefits." Wait, didn't you say the risk was death? You want to keep that as your motto? Diet Pepsi has "More Cola Taste." McDonald's has "I'm Loving It" - in every possible language. And you have "Understand the Risks?" Why not "F--- It. Life Sux. Use Celebrex." I'm not sure you guys have really gotten the concept of "branding" down pat yet. Maybe you should focus a little more on the actual positive aspects of your product.

None of which you remembered to mention in your advertisement. It's almost impossible to go through an ad without mentioning a positive aspect, but you managed. Wow.

Someone should seriously get canned for that ad.

Labels: , ,

posted by Ben Wyman @ 12:32 AM

4 Comments:

At May 18, 2007 7:25 AM, Blogger Kate said...

I think McDonald's was thinking of naming Morgan Spurlock as their Jared.

In other news:
I think the legal department got a hold of the ad... I mean, remember Vioxx?

 
At May 21, 2007 2:41 AM, Blogger bs king said...

It's true Ben...it's cheaper to run ads like that than to pay settlements to people who don't get the fact that there's no such thing as a harmless drug...

 
At May 21, 2007 6:11 PM, Blogger Jihad Hernandez said...

fantastic! where can I get some!

 
At May 24, 2007 8:39 PM, Blogger Caitlin said...

If you really want to know, you should get a drug guide. It has symptoms broken down by common and life-threatening. Somtimes the symptoms are both. You know it must be really bad when they just flat out say death. I wonder if death would be bolded for life-threatening?

 

Post a Comment

<< Home