Today’s New York Times has an article in the Advertising
Section titled “Pfizer to Inject Youth into the Aging Process”. Pfizer is
attempting to improve its image, the article says, and the three-year old campaign,
“Fear of Getting Old”, or FOGO is an effort “to burnish the Pfizer image rather
than promote its products.”
One aspect of the advertising campaign is a website geared to people in their 20s and
30s. There’s a quiz which allegedly evaluates the quiz-taker’s attitude toward
his/her aging. Pfizer’s research reports that its image among persons who have
visited the website has improved by 55 percentage points.
So the campaign is apparently achieving its goal. People
have a more positive image of this Big Pharma entity. And hopefully there is a parallel positive
increase in the attitude toward aging: in general and one’s own aging among the
visitors to getold.com. My cursory
review indicated that the topics are certainly of interest to people in their
20s and 30s. There also seems to be a general attitude of ‘grin and bear it’
toward one’s aging. The gerontologist in
me says we must go much farther. We must honor and cherish each stage of our
life, each stage with its own potential for growth and development. No
Fear!
I’m reminded of an advertisement done by Kaiser
Permanente. Its aim is to encourage women to get regular health screenings, but
the 60 second clip shows older women with such life, energy, mature beauty, deep relational
capabilities and spirit that I can never look at it just once. See for yourself!
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