(Article changed on October 18, 2012 at 14:39)
Martha's Dubious Achievement Awards for 2012
You would never know there's a recession going on by
listening to commercial radio in 2012. Car dealership ads were exceeded only by
home remodeling and bank ads. In fact, if unemployment is really going down,
it's probably all the contactors trying to "repipe" and
"weatherproof" our homes. Nor were "sexual performance" ads
as prevalent as in 2011--maybe all the men are out buying cars.
Hard Times Continue by Martha Rosenberg
The Discover Card became a new entrant in the funny ad category. Netflix' seems to have suspended its hilarious mock quiz show ads in which contestants anticipate the hosts' questions ("If you multiply...?"/"The square root of 36!"/ "Correct!") in 2012. And Geico replaced its inimitable satirical ads with an unfunny, blathering Englishman who never goes away. Why?
But there were also more wolves-in-sheep-clothing in the public
service announcement (PSA) category. Big
Pharma continues to pass off its ads as for the public good and radio stations
continue to fall for the ruse.
Here are some early dubious radio awards for 2012.
More-Than-You'd-Ever-Want-To-Know-About Cancer Award:
Proton Therapy at ProCure Centers
Are so many people getting cancer, the topic is now fit for
radio ads? Or is treating it just so lucrative that ads can ignore the 90
percent plus of people not affected and
not interested in the ads? Either way, ProCure ads for "prostate, brain
and lung cancer" seem to be everywhere. Do we really want to know that men
can avoid "erectile dysfunction" and "incontinence" if they
treat their prostate cancer with proton therapy at a ProCure Center? Wouldn't
men rather hear this from their doctor --and we prefer that they do so?
Most-Sleazy-Disease-Mongering-Ad-Disguised-as-a-PSA Award:
Depression Is Real
It's a disease that "threatens the lives" of
countless Americans, say the ads. It kills like cancer and is as
physiologically-based as diabetes. It is "depression" and it makes
billions of dollars a year for Pharma--especially when people with real job,
family and money woes are made to believe they have it. Even though the
Depression Is Real ads are partially funded by the National Alliance on Mental
Illness (NAMI), which was investigated by Congress for being a Pharma front
group, they were afforded free PSA status on radio station in 2012.
Most-Sleazy-Disease-Mongering-Ad-Disguised-as-a-PSA
Honorable Mention
Drive 4 COPD
The best way to sell a disease (and the drugs designed to go
with it) is spreading fear--especially the fear that the disease is a "silent
killer." So it is no wonder the "Drive 4 COPD" campaign
proclaims that "Millions of Americans don't know they may have
COPD"--chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. If you ever smoked cigarettes and are over 35 you may be
harboring COPD without knowing it, warn the radio ads--which then turn around
and say there is a way to treat the "symptoms" you were just told you
probably don't have. Though the campaign's founding partner is Boehringer
Ingelheim who makes a leading COPD drug, "Drive 4 COPD" ads are
termed PSAs. Are you listening
station managers?
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