This spot starts with picturesque waterfront vacation
footage and the sentence: “It’s time to rethink hepatitis C” superimposed over
it. And contrary to that text’s inviting slogan, the ad says hep C is very
dangerous, and they tell us so over more sumptuous film of people enjoying a
swim and looking at the beautiful view. What, you mean they’re saying hepatitis
C is not enjoyable? And after they
made us associate it with all that relaxing, enjoyable, refreshing leisure activity
stuff, too? What a mixed message! In fact, the first time I saw this ad, the TV
was muted, and I thought maybe I was missing out by not having hepatitis C.
And
that’s why it’s important to have your images and message actually work well
together, because otherwise, you might be communicating the opposite of what
you intend to say.
But the ad says there is hope, so I guess maybe we should
get hep C anyway, because how else are we going to get such a wonderful
waterside vacation? Because if this commercial is any indication, everyone who
gets hepatitis C is really rich.
Here’s the hep C-spot (This isn’t actually the one I’m writing about, as
I can’t find that one, but this one will do nicely to illustrate all my points
anyway):
