About me
Bookshop

Get new posts by email.

About me

The world’s most honest advert?

I note that Vicks are currently running a TV ad with the strapline:

We start with solutions, not problems

Is this a pharmaceutical company admitting that they invent dubious syndromes to fit their drugs? They say that honesty is the best policy, but claiming that their products may form the solution to a non-existent problem might prove to be a little too honest.

This post was filed under: Health, Media.

Recently published posts

1080—1980 / 21 December 2024

Cascading sets / 20 December 2024

New Metro, old problems / 19 December 2024

Moonlight / 18 December 2024

‘A long way home’ / 17 December 2024

Peanut / 16 December 2024




Random posts from the archive




Comments and responses

Comment from Ben King


    10.17, 06/11/2007

Maybe it’s a chemist’s joke – many of their products are dissolved in water.


Comment from Mort Karman


    00.50, 07/11/2007

Iif you think this is strange-here is something stranger- It would appear that it would be less expensive to purchase a non prescription drug when it can do the job of a prescription one. In many cases it is not the case.
Because of the weird insurance situation here my wife and I and friends have found that in some cases it is less expensive to get a drug which may cost several hundred dollars, but which is paid in full or mostly by insurance then to get an inexpensive over the counter drug which is not covered by insurance and we have to pay the total price for.
Thus Vicks, as well as several other perfectly good over the counter meds are not used because the more expensive prescription ones actually cost less out of pocket due to the insurance picking up the cheque.
Modern medicine as practiced in America.


Comment from Jonathan Rothwell


    15.11, 07/11/2007

I must say that it makes Vicks sound like an IT company.


Comment from sjhoward (author of the post)


    22.15, 14/11/2007

I’d love to think it was a chemists’ joke, but I’m doubting it… I notice that they’ve changed their slogan to “People not Problems” or something equally moronic on their latest advert – not sure if the old one’s still running or not.




Compose a new comment

I'm not taking comments on my blog any more, so I'm afraid the opportunity to add to this discussion has passed.




The content of this site is copyright protected by a Creative Commons License, with some rights reserved. All trademarks, images and logos remain the property of their respective owners. The accuracy of information on this site is in no way guaranteed. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author. No responsibility can be accepted for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information provided by this site. Information about cookies and the handling of emails submitted for the 'new posts by email' service can be found in the privacy policy. This site uses affiliate links: if you buy something via a link on this site, I might get a small percentage in commission. Here's hoping.