So I’m watching a network TV newscast the other night – the place where old people go to die in their sleep apparently based on the number of old peoples’ drug ads that appear therein – and I must not be there yet because I stayed awake long enough to see a commercial for a Crest toothpaste “selected for people over 50.”
Hey, I’m one of them. And I still have all my teeth. So I went on the web to search further and found a Procter & Gamble news release that read as follows (the highlights are mine):
I just turned 61. So 11 years ago, when I became “over 50,” did I suddenly need to be treated with softness? Because that didn’t happen.
And it shouldn’t have.
I looked all over for any data to back up these claims by Procter & Gamble. I couldn’t find any.
If the company wants to provide any, we’ll be more than happy to scrutinize them.
Fair and balanced…and over 50…and feeling a need for softness.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Monday at #ADA2021, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a journalist, and a researcher shared perspectives on communication of risk in the era of COVID-19: http://ow.ly/ROfR30rMeE7 @AstleyCM @garyschwitzer @berthahidalgo @ADA_DiabetesPro
Shoutouts to @susan_bewley @drkevinknopf @MichaelBaum11 in this call for more than fawning coverage from press releases for these kinds of stories.
Also, linked history inside goes back 5 years just on Grail apparently trying to become Holy Grail. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1408849696416841731
Comments (4)
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Jan Henderson
December 5, 2012 at 8:35 pmI had the same reaction to that ad, namely, that there was probably zero evidence for the over 50 claim and it was just marketing. We can only hope the public is increasingly skeptical and has wised up to such tactics. There’s a nice discussion of how pharma marketing works in a book I’m just reading, Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health by Joseph Dumit. (& I know what you mean about that network :-) )
jimmy
December 11, 2012 at 10:33 amI don’t see any problem with this…..it is silly to think a brush or paste is specially formulated for someone older than 50yrs but marketing is marketing. Did you ever wonder where the yellow went?
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