NY Times story on hospital advertising rates a 5 on the cringe scale
After the sixth person forwarded me today’s story on hospital advertising from the New York Times website, I figured I better check it out. Ten painful minutes later, I went back and counted no fewer than five points in the story where I believe I actually, physically cringed.
Cringe One: The opening line of the story: “Some advertising agencies weathering the economic downturn are getting a shot in the arm from the most suitable of sources: hospitals.” The idea that ad agencies are benefiting from our industry’s over-reliance on and misuse of mass advertising is disheartening. But the facts back it up, which leads to…
Cringe Two: According to the story, the Kantar Media unit of WPP estimates that hospitals in the U.S. spent $717.2 million on advertising in the first six months of 2011, a 20% increase over 2010. Holy billboards, batman. Knowing 2009 and 2010 were down years overall in business might have something to do with that increase. But there is no arguing that vast amounts of money are flowing from hospitals into what is typically an ineffective marketing tactic in our industry. Why typically ineffective, you ask?
Cringes Three and Four: The article cites two examples of advertising that help demonstrate why this stuff doesn’t work well. A campaign for Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan features a street scene and the headline: “We can’t help you with playoff tickets. We can’t help you with co-op board approval, or getting your child into preschool. But if it’s really a matter of life and death – we can help.” In the same campaign, a print ad touting the hospital’s foundation in 1857 states: “We had cardiologists before the city even had arteries.” These are, as the article notes, different than the typical hospital advertising touting physicians, technology or awards. So in that way, they’re not bad. But they miss the key point: Joe Public doesn’t care about your hospital!!! Since most people aren’t in need of a hospital at any given time, this type of promotional message isn’t relevant to them, and they tune it out. For the vast majority of people this advertising is aimed at, it will have little or no impact. (For more on this check out my new book titled, naturally, “Joe Public Doesn’t Care About Your Hospital.”)
Cringe Five: Another campaign cited later, for Bethesda Heart Hospital in Boynton Beach, FL., featured billboards that read “Your heirs can wait” and “Outlive your foursome.” Yes, nice. Let’s feature advertising connecting your hospital to the theme of death near cities populated with retirees.
The fact that hospitals are spending more and more money on advertising is not really a good trend, especially in this era of increased scrutiny on costs and especially when so much money is spent on so much ineffective advertising. Hospitals and health systems need to focus more on marketing, but the right kind of marketing. Not just more billboards and bragging. After reading the start of this article, you think I would be happy to be in the advertising business. But honestly, this just bums me out.