I’ve started a new category: Badvertising. Why? Sadly, because it’s grown necessary.
Today’s bad advertisement is for Truvada, one part of a combination therapy for HIV patients. The ad says: You’ve worked hard to get where you are. Why settle for an HIV med that’s twice-a-day? Okay, so let’s attack the far lesser problem first. Why settle? Um, you know what? If I was HIV-positive, I wouldn’t be getting all uppity about having to take a pill twice a day if it, you know, kept the virus from replicating and taking over my body. Just sayin’, maybe beggars can’t be choosers, or something like that.
But those are small potatoes. They’re those little red “new” potatoes. You know those potatoes. Dude, now I totally want some of those potatoes. Anyway, so back to the ad. Here’s my beef (mmm… beef and potatoes) with it: the line “You’ve worked hard to get where you are.” No offense, but… “where you are” is in the unfortunate situation of having HIV. So… you’ve worked hard to get HIV? Really? No, I know that’s not what they were going for, but I don’t think the good people at Snickers were going for “Hung? Erect? O, my!” either. I’m just saying, it’s a poorly conceived ad. The common link between people who would want or need Truvada isn’t that they’re successful, driven go-getters, it’s that THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME VIRUS. Plain and simple. There’s nothing else, no other sensibility or characteristic, that merits appealing. The ” better than twice-a-day” thing, at least in this sense, is totally legit. It zeroes in on the issue at heart, instead of grasping for some pretty presumptuous straws.
So, yeah. There you go. The Badvertisement of the Day. It’s just like the soup of the day, only not a delicious broth-based treat. Anyway, time for bed for me. Look, I swear I’m gonna post more soon. Just chillax.