AHA Buys Super Bowl Time, Sidesteps Product

After spending $4.2 million on a couple of spots in the uber-competitive ad orgy called Super Bowl, you naturally want some serious run for your money. But not everybody takes the expected measures to ensure an ROI.

Adrants reader Roy points us to this interesting story about the American Heart Association, who paid the Super Bowl invoice and dropped still more cash to produce light-hearted cautionary piece "Heart Attack," then did something odd: they neglected to mention the product, heart drug Altace.

"I don't think it is appropriate to have some guy in a white lab coat staring into the audience saying, 'You are going to die if you eat another chicken wing,'" says Rebecca Sroge, executive VP and managing director of Glow Worm, the agency that created "Heart Attack."

She posits taking a friendlier approach. The ad encourages people to find out what their risks are at a Beat Your Risk.

A few marketers tsk-tsk the idea but we find it clever. Steve notes the mood-shattering disclaimer crap typical of drug ads can be skipped altogether if the drug isn't mentioned. We also think it's a great way for AHA to build an ongoing relationship with consumers instead of just flinging drugs at them all the time. Kudos to them for being brave and willing to take the long-term route.