This is an accurate depiction of what is happening in my head when I see this commercial.
And you know, this idea that applying an analgesic to your forehead is just about the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. Your forehead and your brain are separated by a thing called your skull, and they’re even on different branches of the carotid artery. Headaches do not occur on your forehead, even if that’s where you feel the pain referred.
Worse yet, Head-On isn’t even an analgesic, it’s a homeopathic stick of wax.
Between the placebo effect, and the desire to think we got our moneys worth (i.e. to believe it really works), a lot of buyers are likley to be fooled. And if it contains something that burns or stings it might even distract our attention from the headache. Oftentimes massaging the head will help (for certain types of headaches), so it is possible that in some instances it might even do a little bit.
And of course the advert is so irritating, that it is bound to intitiate a lot of headaches.
I want to buy some time on local channels to broadcast this. Perhaps during religious shows.
I have an old nightstick at home. It’s pretty old, and rather ratty-looking. I’ve been thinking about sanding and restaining it with a large “HEAD-ON” written along both sides.
Yes, I’m evil. <grin>
Knowing that bone is a poor conductor of heat saved my life.
I was working in the Mojave Desert digging a ditch with a pick and shovel and had no idea that the air temperature was soaring. I kept chugging water and swallowing salt pills, and I felt fine. I later found out it peaked at 126 F in the shade (and there ain’t no shade).
At one point, I paused a moment to wipe my brow, puzzled at finding it dry. And my face was cool. And, I realized, I was seeing in black and white.
I wrapped my teeshirt around my neck and flooded water from a hose into the shirt. This cooled the blood going to my head and the returning blood going to my heart.
Several minutes later, color vision returned, and I felt HORRIBLE … which told me I was going to live.
What’s weird about this is I didn’t learn this from school. It came from a box written back in the 1800s by a frontier scout who’d learned from the Indians how they treated fever — none of this cooling-the-brow nonsense, they wrapped twigs and moss around the neck and dribbled water on it.
I do not know what Head-On is, but I suffer from headaches caused by sinusitis and one thing that does soothe the pain is to apply “tiger” balm to my forehead. In case you are not aware of what “tiger” balm is, it is a petroleum jelly based product with menthol and other warming additives which you apply externaly to provide a soothing heat. I find it effective.
I would point out that applying heat is a recognised treatment for sinus pain.
My loving wife bought me one of these sticks; I get migraines, nothing helps much, and she thought what the hell (note that she assumed it’s “for” headaches; nowhere in the ads [nor, I think, on the packaging] is this ever made explicit–they keep telling you where to apply it, but make no claims about when that might be appropriate…evil genius). It is (as subsequent research showed) indeed a homeopathic “remedy,” but it does contain (as an “inactive ingredient”) menthol, which makes the brow tingle & burn a bit, and you know, it does kind of distract one from the pain.
Oh, I am so lucky! Not to have a TV, that is. I had been spared, up until now, exposure to that ad. It was enough to induce a migraine in itself.
[going for my meds. No thanks to you.]
Oddly, that’s actually LESS annoying than the real commercial.
I remember reading an article about this commercial, and that the reason it was so repetitive was that:
1. they wanted to point out how the product is used, and
2. they weren’t allowed to make claims about it relieving headaches
BUT … they don’t make any claims. At no point do they say that the product will relieve any symptom. They just tell you how to fritter away the money that you just wasted. There’s a certain integrity in the con.
@Ex-drone, FWIW, the standard for deception is viewed from the perspective of a reasonable consumer in light of the entire ad. So, even if it doesn’t make a specific representation, visual clues (such as a person saying “this is effective” while wearing a lab coat) or things left unsaid can lead a reasonable consumer to believe something. I think it would be reasonable for a consumer to think it is some type of head pain reliever.
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