LifeScan Marketing Gone Awry

I am just cringing here, Folks. CRINGING.

In what I consider to be a prime example of patient exploitation, J&J LifeScan stepped over the line late last week when it sent out a so-called "Public Service Announcement" (PSA) pitch to bloggers about its OneTouch UltraMini "Splash of Color" campaign.  The email alert I received, which I assume was also blasted out to a whole host of diabetes and health bloggers, insists that "choice of color may help diabetics feel less clinical and more personal about their diabetes, which will encourage them to test regularly" -- which they claim translates into "an important health message to diabetics." 

Therefore LifeScan's promotional agency WestGlen Communications implores, "We are hoping you can place the banner and Public Service Announcement pro bono" -- meaning that we bloggers should be willing to post on our sites for free a variety of promotional banners in pre-packaged sizes (or the agency can resize it to fit your blog) all for the greater good of the diabetes community, of course.

Check out THIS VIDEO that LifeScan's agency is pushing, and prepare to CRINGE.

What's wrong with this so-called "PSA"?  Oy, where should I start?

First off, the video doesn't even pretend to be a public service announcement, defined as "a non-commercial advertisement, ostensibly broadcast for the public good."  Instead, it is a blatant (and very colorful) product campaign!  "OneTouch is giving away 10,000 color monitors as part of this public awareness initiative."  You can also enter the UltraMini Meter Sweepstakes for a chance to win an iPod Nano.

For God's sake, iPods come in exciting colors, too, but at least Apple's not pretending to bolster public health.

How about that color consultant, who very nearly makes the Amway lady in Roger & Me (who presumably wasn't paid for her services) look insightful?  "People have a series of complex reactions about color..., " the LifeScan-hired color gal says. "People with diabetes will benefit ... because it brings in an element of personal choice... colors pack in positive symbolism."  Hey, green is life-sustaining, the color of vegetation, and don't forget that pink is happy!

Hmm, personal choice in diabetes products could be beneficial, ay?  At least that I agree with.

I just wanted to note how disappointed I am in LifeScan here, not least because I do think the UltraMini is a useful and well-designed product, which also comes in attractive colors.  Therefore I had hoped LifeScan would become an advertiser here in the not-too-distant future.  Ouch.

Comments

[Michael Park]

Haha, that was funny. I would expect that an expert in colour theory would be able to go deeper into the tones of the colour or something.
This just reinforces the fact that aside from CGM, there have been no new developments in glucose meters in near a decade.
Side note, those are the lamest colours ever - silver and black barely even count as colours!
Nevertheless, don't make more out of this than there is; it's not unethical, just stupid and pointless.

[Kathleen Weaver]

Hmm, I feel neglected, I didn't get one.

[Amber]

If they really wanted to do an important public service, they would give away 10,000 boxes of STRIPS instead of the meters. The meters are useless if you cannot afford the strips, or don't have insurance that will pay for them for you. To me, that seems to be a slightly more important matter than whether the color of my meter matches my dress.

[Elijah Meyer]

WOW. And because 10,000 lucky diabetics will get to pick the color of that free meter, they'll be testing like crazy, throwing mountains of cash at OneTouch for the extra test strips they'll no doubt require. How altruistic of them.

In the past two years, I've gotten three free blood glucose meters from my endocrinologist. The manufacturers give them to him with reckless abandon, because five test strips a day 365 days a year equals roughly $1460.

[Allison]

I received this email too and, as I do with anything remotely resembling an advertisement, promptly ignored it. I completely agree with everything that you wrote. It's not that having the colors is a bad thing - I don't even think giving away the product is bad because, hey, you have to test anyway, don't you? But I think they went above and beyond ridiculousness with this "PSA" and the whole banner system. I think this is one case of somebody in their PR saying, "Hey, wouldn't doing something in new media be really cool?"

Yeah, them and everybody else.

[Scott K. Johnson]

Yep, I got it. Like Allison I pretty much threw it away.

How about some tools that will really help us live our lives with D? While I don't mind the whole color thing, I don't really feel it qualifies as much of a revolutionary, life changing tool just because it has a new color.

[Sara]

I wonder if that's related to the e-mail I got from OneTouch Gold. Signed up on their site to get a free meter and clearly indicated Type 1. The subject of the e-mail - Turn Around Your Type 2
:|

[Michelle]

Has anyone here ever paid for a meter? Not me, and we have at last count 6 freestyle flash, (3 actively in use, home, school, grandmas) 2 precision extras, a one touch, an aviva(sp), a BD, and one other that I can't think of the name. The meters are free. Lets not let that little tidbit get by. They are free. This one touch campaign is akin to the junkie in the schoolyard handing out freebies, "just this once". They know once you try it you might become hooked and the real goods, the strips, are where they make their money.

The real public service initiative would be to hand out strips to every PWD who needs them.

[Susan]

I am a new type 2 and scared. My MD gave me one of those One Touch Mini thingies and some strips. Now I find I have to buy strips by the 'amount greater than medicare and my insurance will pay for.'

It's like the razor companies. They sold the razors cheaply but you had to keep buying new blades.

Ouch. (Just learning to stick myself and black and blue.)

[Dave Wendel]

While I agree this is quite absurd it really isn't even worth blogging about because it just bolsters their campaign.

[riva]

Just to play Devil's Advocate, since that seems my role in life lately, think beyond the obvious ridiculousness of calling this a public service ad. Yep, in that regard this is a blatant ad for the UltraMini Meter.

But here's findings I heard recently that you can relate to this (s)ex-ploitation of color. A study was conducted wherein half the residents of an old age home were given three choices about how to design their residence, and half were not. The half who had the opportunity to make personal choices about their environment's furnishings -- including color, design, pattern, etc, had half the deaths two years later as the group that had no choices.

I do believe personal choice is empowering and color is an emotional driver. Maybe since these meters are cute and colorful more people will test more. But while the move to color may have been a helpful one for some patients, the declaration that this is a public service ad and wanting bloggers to carry it, was presumptous, deceptive, arrogant and smacks of hubris. You know most things are not mutually exclusive: color can be good and lying can be bad.

[Jessica Hickok]

That video is wrong on so many levels. I guess you are a "happier diabetic" with your pink meter, but I'm a "diabetic living in a more vegitative state" with my green meter. It doesn't make sense. I like the idea of the colors for the meters, just not promoted like that.

[JasonJayhawk]

Wow! I'm going to need some string to wire my jaw back to the "closed" position!

Why do I suspect that Lifescan and/or their advertisement agency does not hire Type 1 diabetics in their planning?

Boardroom: "Yeah, offering colors will make them buy more strips, so let's give some meters away for free!" Thinks to self: 'Maybe I'll get a raise this year!'

[Craig Williams]

Amen to all the previous comments. In case someone from Lifescan takes note, and they'd like to find a better method to distinguish their product, a meter with better than a +/- 20% error in the results would be much more valuable to me than a green, pink, or blue meter.

[M]

Well said Craig. Though I think colour choices etc are great for us - and I do agree that colours can influence our feelings towards things, I still don't think they're working on the important stuff.

I don't want a smaller, faster meter - I want an ACCURATE meter.

I'm highly disappointed every time I do side by side testing between my 3 meters. The difference from the lowest to highest can be huge. How can I ever expect to have good enough control with meters that don't tell me the truth? How can I trust my decisions with insulin when I can't trust the BG reading I'm basing my dosage on?

Anyhoo, I've digressed... I think it's a little rude expecting free advertising, however they're probably aware that they're offering something a lot of people have been asking for. Maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Dunno about that tacky 'PSA'!

[Naomi]

I agree with so many of the above comments -- although it is nice to have a color choice, it is so much better to have more accurate meters, or a better method of delivering insulin. But it is horrible for One Touch to promote this video as a PSA, when it is so obviously a sales pitch...

[Amylia]

Barf.

I can't believe how lame that commercial is. I kinda liked the Mini before I saw that. Now I know I'm not getting one. Mostly because of what I've heard others say about its lack of accuracy. I just read Cara's post over on her blog and many others who, like me, are annoyed that the results on the meters vary so much. I have never paid for a meter, but the amount I've spent on the strips is sick. Seriously sick. We're making these companies rich, and the best they can do is that color theory lady?

Barf again.

I agree colors are kinda nice, but seriously--if that's the best you can do-if that's all you can offer, then something is seriously lacking with your product.

[Penny]

I think I'll have to get all of the colors now. So, when Riley feels sad about sticking his little fingers, I'll pull out the pink machine to make him happy.

When he feels like the world has turned against him because of his stupid disease, I will test him with the green meter in order to make him feel "lucky".

And, when this disease makes him feel weak, I'll test with black to make him feel powerful.

No need to get the silver, his Freestyle is that color already.

Lifescan is really stretching it with this one.

[Becky]

Wow - I never knew that green was universal for luck - I just always remember snickering on the back of the bus about what green m&m's do to you! That us why when I was given the chance to get this meter, I made sure to order pink for my daughter, not green!!!!

Actually, we got pink because she likes pink, not because of any color association. And because I had a hundred of the strips at home already.

Now for my 9 year old, she likes it cause it's pink, and she wants to know why I didn't get her the blue one!

[RichW]

I really like the commercials that advertise painless testing. The actor or actress says they don't have to prick their fingers anymore. I'm going to hit the next person who asks me why I still prick my fingers when there are new devices that don't require blood. They tell me about the latest commercial they saw. I'm not high strung and they've pushed me over the edge.

[badshoe]

Color is all well and good it helps us keep track of which of the two kids with T1's metere is which.

Now the cases come in your choice of black so you have to open it to see the meter color.

The mini is huge. Want a small meter buy a can of strips with the meter in the cap. It called a SideKick. 25-30 bucks for 50 strips and a meter.

It doesn't allow the download of data but niether dose a mini. Maybe they can come out witha Mini II that downloads and is actually small.

[Mike]

I read the email and I actually voted for orange (I dig orange). But the Mini meters lack a way to download the numbers to my PC (which seems silly). Thankfully, since my wife just switched to the OmniPod, all our new strips will be Freestyle only (although I have a year's worth of OneTouch strips to bleed through now).

[Hannah]

I agree with most people that this "PSA" (gag) is a bad choice, and in poor taste. If I want somebody telling me what colors will improve how I feel about myself, it's going to be a makeup expert telling me about eyeshadow, not a hippy-dippy color lady telling me my pink meter should make me feel happy.

And yet, I ended up with a free pink Mini about 2 months back, and I am definitely happy with it. It's nicely designed, and pink, and doesn't require me to carry a monster-sized purse. I have nothing to complain about.

As for those of us who rant, rave and rage how companies should be giving us test strips for free, consider this: do any companies give us insulin for free? pump supplies? syringes? oral meds?

Of course not, because they are companies. Businesses. And until the face of health care changes in this country from focusing on the profits behind the pharmaceuticals to focusing on the well-being of the patients who benefit from using them, we'll never get free test strips.

And with type 2 on the rise, of course marketing efforts will focus on type 2.

Personally, I like LifeScan's products. Maybe we all need to write some letters/emails to their PR/Marketing folks and let them know that we want some REAL input from people who actually HAVE diabetes in these campaigns.

[Susan]

You know who will respond to colorful meters? Teenagers.

This "color consultant" is gag-worthy and will repel the market that likely will respond.

Instead if making it a PSA, make it a music video.

Big companies are so stupid.

[David Detmers]

I am the Director of Communications for LifeScan. We are aware of this issue and want you to know that promoting this campaign as a Public Service was inappropriate and not authorized by LifeScan. We will provide Amy Tenderich with a more thorough written explanation shortly. However, we wanted to make all DiabetesMine readers aware that this was not intentional and we apologize.