What We Can Learn From The Most Off-Putting Health-Related Marketing Campaign

There are many complexities to life science marketing at a business-to-customer level as opposed to business-to-business, as you need to catch a customer’s eye and explain how a sometimes complex product or concept can help to improve their lives.

There are plenty of examples of times life science companies have gotten this right, but one of the most fascinating examples of how to get every element of a marketing campaign wrong comes from the 1999 facial stimulation product Rejuvenique.

The premise, dubious and potentially dangerous as it was, was that you put on a mask with gold-plated contact points that would electrocute your face in specific points to help create a more toned, youthful look.

Aside from suggestions that this not only does not work but according to facial palsy websites may actually cause more harm than good, the mask was not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration which would have had jurisdiction over the product.

What made all of this worse and what turned a dubious concept into a collective horror show was its marketing in pretty much every aspect other than the smart decision not to put the product itself on the box.

The face mask is inherently off-putting as a design, with a pale pallor and distinct lack of features that whilst claimed in advertising and infomercial slots to be reminiscent of Raul the Phantom of the Opera is more reminiscent of the slasher film villain Michael Myers from Halloween.

The other side, with its exposed electrical contacts, is even worse, resembling an implement of torture more than a device a human being would willingly strap to their head.

The advertising slots featuring Linda Evans from the TV show Dynasty attempt in their copy to describe the contacts as “cushions” and the electrical shocks as the equivalent of “eight sit-ups a second”, but this is juxtaposed with its inherently off-putting appearance.

Ultimately Rejuvenique shows that an audience deserves more credit than it often receives from some types of advertising campaigns. No amount of linguistic gymnastics or use of celebrity endorsements can get past the inherent uncanny effect the product provides.