What Can Be Learned By The Worst Medicine Advert?

The most important maxim to bear in mind when creating life science marketing campaigns is that clarity and truth must supersede every other aspect of the advertisement.

Part of this is for legal reasons; prescription medication and medical devices cannot be advertised at all, but even products available over the counter must be able to substantiate any health claims that they make.

As the late Christopher Hitchens pointed out, evidence is the key; if a claim is made with no evidence, it can be dismissed with no evidence as well.

One especially dubious product was mindful of this fact and made sure not to make any health claims it could not substantiate. In fact, it did not say anything at all.

HeadOn was a topical product produced initially by Miralus Healthcare that claimed to remove headaches once it was applied to the forehead on its website, although not in its marketing.

Famous sceptic James Randi called it a “major medical swindle” and the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division, the American counterpart to the Advertising Standards Agency, objected to an initial claim that the product provided “effective” headache relief.

HeadOn had no medical claims it could use, so it did not use any.

 Technically it did not lie; HeadOn was designed to be applied to the forehead, and is available without a prescription, given that the product is almost entirely made of wax.

 This also means it has no side effects, primarily because it does not have any effects

According to Miralus Healthcare, this advert worked best with focus groups as the repetition helped them to remember the brand, but everyone else believed it to be annoying, with the repetition more likely to induce headaches than HeadOn is likely to help them.

It was one of the earliest adverts to receive a lot of attention through social media parody, with a parody even appearing in the mockbuster film Disaster Movie in 2008.