Two not-quite-real examples of our healthcare advertising

In recent times, I have been somewhat critical of the general standard of healthcare advertising.

Whether it’s a surfeit of puzzling metaphors (as I described in this post about the rhino in the room) or a case of over-analysis, much healthcare advertising seems to deviate from generally accepted principles of good communication.

But can Wellmark do any better?

It’s a fair question – and one that I’ll have to answer obliquely. Governed as we are by the Medicines Australia Code, we’re not at liberty to show our pharmaceutical advertising in the public domain.

We can, however, demonstrate our general approach to advertising, using a couple of examples that relate to healthcare (albeit tangentially).

These two ads are based on ideas I developed for the advertising competition known as One Minute Briefs – to which our designers have since added their art-direction expertise.

Arguably, these examples are more simplistic than many healthcare advertisements can afford to be.

But what I hope they demonstrate is that advertising is most effective when it:

• Attracts the reader’s attention by creating some intrigue
• Communicates a single, clear message, thus reducing the risk of ambiguity or even confusion
• Evokes an emotional response from the reader, which in turn encourages the desired behaviour.

Do they work? We’ll let you be the judge.

By Ryan Wallman, Head of Copy at Wellmark. Ryan tweets about healthcare advertising and pharma communications @wellmark_health. 

And if you want to see what the One Minute Briefs concept is all about, take a look at their website or follow them on Twitter: @oneminutebriefs.