Insensitive advertising

“Don’t make me laugh!”

That’s the message – in huge letters – on a flier I received in the mail this week. It’s an invitation to join a clinical trial. To qualify, participants must be women between the ages of 18 and 70 who experience at least one daily episode of loss of bladder control when they sneeze, cough, exercise, orlaugh.

Is it just me, or is this a little insensitive? Especially because the color of the flier iswell, let’s just say it’s sort of a rich “canary” yellow.

I’m fortunate to be able to say that I have no bladder control problem. But I imagine it’s uncomfortable and somewhat embarrassing. And having some advertising agency pat itself on the back for being “clever” at my expense would inspire me to do a lot of things. But joining the clinical trial certainly isn’t one of them.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute