Anyone else notice that the models used as PWDs for device advertising (pumps, CGMs, accessories, meters, etc.) seem to be, well, unrepresentative of the normal attractiveness of most people? Put more succinctly, they're usually, crudely put, hot!
No surprise there -- we're talking Madison Ave., after all. What made this noteworthy to me though was catching the fact that the models used to advertise pharmaceuticals to PWDs -- Victoza, Levemir, etc. -- are the exact opposite... usually pudgy, plain ordinary sort of folk. We had an interesting discussion over how unrepresentative this is of real PWDs last week or two.
Anyway, nothing earth-shattering here. Just some light conversation with my D family. It's made me smile from the day I got my Dexcom G4 starter kit that the picture used in many places showing placement of the sensor on the abdomen is of a sexy, fit, attractive female tummy/waist, rather than slapping it on Jim Joe-Bob's generous beer-gut spare tire.
That's Marketing 101 for ya. The advertisers don't want no stinkin' realism in their ads. I've taken almost all the RA medications on the market, I still haven't had a day where I've run on the beach, played frisbee, or 'sprang' out of bed.
But I know what you are saying, at least put a little realism in the advertising. But don't swing the other way either--Wilford Brimley with his diabeeeeetus.
I've taken almost all the RA medications on the market, I still haven't had a day where I've run on the beach, played frisbee, or 'sprang' out of bed
Obviously you're not using it right :-)
Seriously though, I don't have RA (or even A yet, knock on wood at 52), but I must say it's been an awfully long time since I, "'sprang' out of bed" in the morning. Oh, those were the days... drink yourself to seeing quadruple at a frat party in college, bounce out of bed the next morning for a few hours of Ultimate Frisbee.
It seems with diabetes products it is a case of extremes. Usually "we" are portrayed as unfit people, you know overweight, sitting, obsesses with food (e.g. the only "activity we see is someone walking the aisles of a grocery store) I suppose with the pump ads they are trying to make y9u believe that you will be flying through the air. But as someone else posted, real people don't exist on Madison Avenue. Personally, I'd rather see them swing to the "attractive stereotype" than the other since, unfortunately, the general public gets a lot of their impression of PWD's from these ads.
Good point, artwoman. Since we're all used to seeing mostly attractive people in ads, the fact that they pick people who are not stands out. And I would like to dispell the notion that we are overweight, inactive, and sick!
Probably the same reason that in the US they always seem to read 102. I've decided that that's the diabetes "magic number", and that if I'm not 102, I'm hyper or hypoglycemic.
