Saturday, September 14, 2013

Tylenol is Selling You on Mainstream “Normal”-cy



I have a problem with the new advertisement series from the makers of Tylenol. You may have heard their catchy jingle on the radio or TV: get back to normal… whatever your normal is. ™. The idea is that by taking a Tylenol pill the consumer can eliminate the pain that he/she is feeling and return to their normal lifestyle. This may be a very effective ad campaign for them, but I have a problem with it.

People with chronic pain can’t just take one pill of anything much really to return to what is considered by mainstream society to be “normal”. Sometimes “normal” for people with chronic pain is (wait for it) ... pain. No Tylenol pill will “cure” their pain, nor should people with chronic pain be told that if only they took one Tylenol pill they could rid themselves of the condition which has been plaguing them for potentially years.

Our society glorifies the able-bodied as gods and goddesses of aesthetically pleasing beings. Everything must be beautiful and symmetrical, and everything must function fully. The overwhelming majority of companies use models who are young, able-bodied, slim, and nearly unrealistic looking in order to sell their products or services. I have always been bothered by this, because this isn’t how life really works.

This latest ad campaign from Tylenol really irks me because I feel it targets the able-bodied community and offers a convenient “cure” for minor pain relief for them. Those with chronic pain are excluded merely by the fact that there is no “cure” for their pain. Furthermore, the company is pressuring its consumers to take their product to return to normal. The way the company is doing this is by equating normal with a bodily state which is pain-free. Therefore the company is effectively sidelining and ostracizing those whose “normal” bodily state is not pain-free. I am bothered by this.




While the company may be making a health profit and selling its product quite well thanks to this new jingle they should perhaps reconsider what they are doing to the hundreds of thousands of people out there who are being shut-out from participating in this idyllic concept of a “pain-free” normal.

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