How do you sell a questionable drug product? Bring on the celebrity

Forty Lashes

I was SO wrong about this one.

First let me describe a scenario that you might think is a joke if you didn’t already know that it’s just too weirdly true…

The deal breaker

Let’s say that you suffer from inadequate eyelashes. Don’t laugh – as the old saying goes: Boys don’t make passes at girls with inadequate lashes. (Or something like that.)

So you try one mascara product after another and still you have inadequate lashes (in spite of certain advertising claims that a mascara product will actually lengthen lashes).

But then someone recommends a product that’s FDA-approved – so you know it’s GOT to be good! It’s a liquid that you sort of paint over the baseline of your lashes, and in a few months – boing! – you’ve grown noticeably longer, thicker lashes.

This story may sound familiar because a few weeks ago I first told you about a medication called Latisse that does lengthen eyelashes (as described above) in three to four months. But unlike mascara, Latisse has some annoying side effects (itchy eyes, dry eyes, red eyes), along with some daunting side effects (darkened eyelids, hair growth in unwanted spots), and one truly bizarre side effect (blue eyes may turn brown…permanently).

Uh oh. That’s kind of a deal breaker. Or so you might think.

Lashes take a “journey”

When I sent you that e-Alert I wrote: “And they actually believe women will use this medication when a tube of mascara can get the same job done with zero side effects.” What was I thinking? OF COURSE women will use it! In fact, executives for Allergan (the company that makes Latisse) predict their product will make half a billion dollars a year!

Now, that might be just good old-fashioned marketing hype – especially since we’re in the deepest recession in generations and Latisse costs about $120 for a one-month supply. (And keep in mind, you have to keep using it because if you stop, your new come-hither lashes will revert back to boring and normal.) But Allergan execs have a secret weapon they hope will encourage women to plunk down the big bucks: an A-List Celebrity.

If you stop by latisse.com, your computer screen will suddenly fill with a heaping faceful of Brooke Shields. But Brooke didn’t just lend her image, she agreed to be a celebrity guinea pig. In fact, you can peruse “Brooke’s Gallery” to see the progress of her lashes, transforming from what appears to be perfectly adequate to…somewhat more adequate.

Want more? Click on “Brooke’s Video Diary” which “chronicles the lash journey.” But this diary is really just a one-minute advertisement, with Brooke describing her “journey” from short to long lashes. And maybe it’s just me, but she seems to be not exactly what you’d call over- the-top enthusiastic.

Perhaps she just found out that her lovely green (hazel?) irises may soon be turning brown.

The copy that appears above the video notes that Brooke’s acting career has “earned her critical acclaim and legions of fans, but it’s her personal commitment to important causes that makes her a real beauty.” Hmmm. But no “causes” are listed. You don’t suppose they actually want us to believe that inadequate lashes is an “important cause” do you?

Yeah. I think they do.

Source:
“Drug Promises Fuller Lashes, But At What Cost?” Kevin McCarthy, Consumer Reports, 3/5/09, blogs.consumerreports.org