Thursday, March 13, 2014

It’s Time to Rethink Hepatitis C Ad

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):