Sunday, January 23, 2005

Discrepancy in Advertising

While I was on my way back to school, I was listening to the NFL playoff games on the radio and in doing so, I heard many commercial advertisements for a product called "Jointritis." The Jointritis web site says, "At last, science has found a way to combine a clinically proven external pain relief medicine (menthol) with the support of lanolin, glucosamine and chondroitin triple skin conditioners to fight dry skin."
Now, I listened to this commercial at least a dozen times while on my way back to Beloit as it was being advertised on the sports radio station and was obviously meant to appeal to the arthritis sufferers who listen to sports radio. I found one discrepancy in this advertisement, however, in the many times that I heard it. During the commercial, they announce that the product Jointritis will relieve even your (the consumer's) worst MINOR arthritis pain. This sentence struck me as odd. It will relieve your WORST MINOR arthritis pain. If it relieves such bad MINOR arthritis pain, why wouldn't it relieve MAJOR arthritis pain? Maybe I'm being too picky, but I really feel that this is faulty advertising.
I for sure would not want a product that only relieves minor pain. And I really wouldn't want a product that is too afraid to say that they can't relieve major pain. And furthermore, when I'm in pain, how am I going to be able to tell where the line is between MAJOR and MINOR pain? The bottom line is, don't use a product that uses such shifty advertising and can't be sure about the product it is they are advertising.