Thank. God.
Just minutes after a Super Bowl ad in which Coke is infused into every human being via the Internet, Weight Watchers so simply laid out the challenge healthcare faces in making true change.
It was a change-of-pace crushing indictment of the eat-everything-any-way-you-can-eat culture.
Literally obsessed with that @WeightWatchers ad. Shots fired. So much realness. Amazing! #BrandBowl
— Allyssa Kaiser (@AllyssaKaiser) February 2, 2015
Healthcare ads usually don’t run nationally during the Super Bowl. They’re too expensive and so, instead, health systems will typically buy regional ad placements during the Super Bowl. Nationally, we’re buried with Coke, Budweiser and McDonald’s (the latter quickly followed the Weight Watchers Super bowl ad with a pledge to give away food for calling your mom to say I love you – if it was reality it would be better to say, “I’m eating McDonalds for free, farewell mom!”).
What would really happen if Coke was infused into all of us through cyberspace. We would gain 50 pounds and die. #brandbowl — Chris Seper (@chrisseper) February 2, 2015
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The Weight Watchers Super Bowl ad parodies fast food joints and processed food makers. It shows increasingly numerous burgers and fries on a platter, and then contrasts claims of specialty foods and “natural” offerings with concoctions ginned up in a lab.
“We cooked it up special for you,” says the ad as a lab scientist pulls a waffle out of a vial with tongs, later saying, “If you buy more, we’ll cut you a deal” while someone dumps a second massive tub of mayonnaise from a Costco-like shelf. It also includes a succulent swipe at Guy Fieri.
It ends simply with, “It’s time to take back control.”
Funny seeing @weightwatchers trying to sell its message of weight loss during the biggest snacking day of the year! #SuperBowlads
— Ad Age (@adage) February 2, 2015
What Ad Age says is correct. But in the end, no matter how many apps, stents, insurance plans or big-data strategies we create, how America eats and what America has no choice but to eat will trump them.
Nice to get a reminder during the Super Bowl.
