Denialism

HeadOn Works!

—

by

Chris
in

The ads work, that is. HeadOn, that homeopathic (and therefore completely ineffective) head rub for head pain isn’t effective. But it’s still selling, because advertising and propaganda often trumps evidence! Mya Frazier of AdAge reports:

Those rapid-fire “HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead” spots are arguably among the worst commercials ever from a creative standpoint. They’re annoying, repetitive, obnoxious — and effective.
Clutter buster: HeadOn ads seem amateurish and mindnumbing, but the company’s marketing chief said consumers remember them.

[…]

HeadOn is logging some heady growth rates — 234% from 2005 to 2006. And for the first half of 2007, the brand looks to be on track to double sales. HeadOn ranks No. 9 in the external-analgesics-rubs category and logged $6.5 million in sales last year, up from just $1.9 million in 2005, according to Information Resources Inc. That’s not including Wal-Mart, who is “one of our biggest customers” Mr. Charron said.

Miralus’ ActivOn, for joint pain, launched in 2006, has leapfrogged past HeadOn, topping out at $5.5 million in sales and jumping to the No. 6 spot in the $278 million external-analgesic-rubs category. Within that category, Head-On is stealing share from such brands as Icy Hot, which was up just 4.4% in 2006; Bengay, which was down 2.5% last year; and Aspercreme, down 12.6% in 2006. (The last for a long time had its own cheesy tagline, “You bet your sweet Aspercreme,” since changed to “You bet if it’s Aspercreme.)

[…]

Mr. Charron is a big believer in focus groups and takes a rather unconventional approach to this most traditional of research tools. “Our No. 1 priority is recall,” said Mr. Charron, and sounding a bit like the HeadOn spots himself, he added: “It’s all about recall. It’s all about recall.”

Instead of testing the commercials against other headache remedies or other health-care advertising, Mr. Charron has tested HeadOn spots instead against what he refers to as ad clutter. “Odds are, 99% of the time, our ad won’t be next to a headache remedy anyway but a car ad or electronics ad or food ad,” he said.

[…]

But if the HeadOn story is inspiring as a case study, remember, it’s all about the long haul. Despite the buzz and the impressive sales growth figures, Miralus isn’t in the black yet.

Comments

  1. Rev. BigDumbChimp

    Hands down most annoying commercial ever.

    Reply
  2. Tyler DiPietro

    One of your links is very interesting. Apparently, The Washington Post has to be fair regardless of the facts. So they quote some whack-job saying this:

    The Response That dismissive view is typical of traditional medicine, Charron said. “We respect every doctor’s opinion, but they are not exposed to homeopathy, and they don’t understand how this works,” he said.”

    Unbelievable.

    Reply
  3. Qoheleth

    “Completely ineffective?” I wouldn’t argue with “no more effective than placebo,” but given what we know about the placebo effect, “completely ineffective” doesn’t seem likely.

    Reply
  4. Chris H

    @Qoheleth, fair enough! C

    Reply
  5. Sven DiMilo

    But the really great thing about those ads is that they make no claim of effectiveness whatsoever; in fact, they don’t even mention what the stuff is supposed to be for (“headache” is assumed–never stated)…just where to apply it.
    By the way, I’ve tried it, and it kind of makes your skin tingle a bit (menthol, an “inactive ingredient”), giving some illusion of effectiveness at…something.

    Reply
  6. Kagehi

    Yeah. The “other” version of this might work, by shear accident. Its not unheard of for meds to be applied in a patch, and its not improbable that it would work with something like a pain reducer. They do it all the time for athletes with sprains, though by using a high capsacin gel (which you have to be numbed to the point of not feeling anything to use it), but which blocks chronic pain for like six months (by overloading the nerve receptors). Other less extreme forms of meds are given through the skin as well. Its not improbable that, over a length of time, asprin or the like could seep through the skin and have an effect. What makes this products a crank psuedoscience product is not that the idea was, in principle, bad, but that headaches are **not** caused by the same kind of pain, or in the same way, as more localized forms.

    Solving such, by taking a real aspirin, is likely to work, for some headaches. Slapping one on your head.. not so much. lol

    Reply
  7. Theodore Price

    I have no idea if Headon works, but… it does contain menthol. Menthol is an agonist of TRPM8 receptors which are expressed by a subset of sensory neurons that are involved in pain modulation. There is evidence in pre-clinical models that menthol can alleviate neuropathic touch-evoked pain when applied topically. See Proudfoot et al., (2006) Current Biology 16 (16) 1591-1605. Capsaicin works by activating and then desensitizing TRPV1 receptors which are expressed by a large population of pain sensing neurons. This desensitization appears to lead to a longer term desensitization of that neuron (up to 6 months). Several proposals of how that happens are currently under investigation but the mechanism is not known at this point.

    Medicines applied by patch are used all the time for pain. Opioids can be delivered this way (namely fentanyl) and there are several promising cannabinoid receptor agonist trials underway that use a similar approach.

    Reply
  8. Rach

    We have something similar in the UK called 4head – I’d always assumed that the whole point of the thing was to provide a sort of soothing effect rather than actually act as a painkiller. I use it when I take a painkiller, and by the time the tingle wears off, the painkiller’s kicked in. Now I’m wondering why that tingly feeling seems soothing to me.

    Reply
  9. Kagehi

    Well, Theodore, the point with “Headon” and the like is that it can’t work, because headaches are not localized in the same fashion and caused by the same sort of things that normal pai is. I get a head ache and it could be anything from a tooth ache, to neck muscles, to an ear infection, to a fracking pinched nerve at the base of the spine, which just “happens” to trigger the pain in the head, instead of my ass. Unless you dump enough meds into the patch to numb the persons entire body, which I don’t think they are doing, the odds that *your* headache is caused by something *in your head* is not so good, and the odds that its going to be caused by rogue nerves in your forehead, unless your pain is coming from something like a sinus infection or cold, is even more improbable. Its not that it can’t work. Its that it implies, how ever indirectly, that it could/will work on something that in 90% of all cases is either not “in your head” to start with, or no where near the location you are placing it, in the cases it is there.

    Its not quite as crank as healing magnets, but its about as useful, in general, as suggestion you use leeches to cure everything from allergies to broken bones, instead of “only” when its useful to use them as a natural blood thinner. Just because something works in 1% of the case, because its useful in those cases, doesn’t mean it not total BS the other 99% of the time. That’s what makes this crank science. The exaggeration of benefit, not the lack of one. 😉

    Reply
  10. jagra hap

    jagra, jagra hap, jagra bursa,bursa jagra, penis büyütücü, jagra hap bursa,
    erotikshop, penis büyütücü hap, erotik shop, serlestirici hap, sertlestirici hap bursa,
    erotik shop, jagra hap bursa, jagra hap bayi, jagra bayi, jagra bursa bayi,

    Reply
  11. sertlestirici hap

    jagra hapla penisiniziz sertlestirin ve buyutun

    Reply
  12. ersel

    jagra ile farki yasayin

    Reply
  13. ilhan gon

    wilo, wilo pompa, wilo bursa, wilo bayi, wilo bayii, wilo turkiye,wilo meta, wilo metateknolojik, wilo hidrafor, wilo sirkulasyon pompasi, sirkulasyon pompasi, wilo yangin hidraforu, yangin hidraforu, dalgic pompa, wilo dalgic pompa, wilo frekans konvertoru, wilo invertor, wilo tank, wilo genlesme tanki, wilo buzusme tanki, wilo tsurumi, wilo emu, wilo foseptik, wilo foseptik tahliye, duyar, duyar vana, duyar bursa, duyar vana bursa, duyar bayi, duyar vana bayi, duyar turkiye bayi, duyar kuresel vana, kuresel vana, radyator vanasi, duyar radyator vanasi, radyator vana, duyar cekvalf, cekvalf bursa, cekvalf, duyar pislik tutucu, duyar glop vana, glop vana, glop vana bursa, disko cekvalf, calpara cekvalf, calpara cekvalf bursa, calpara cekvana, dogalgaz vanasi bursa, dogalgaz vanasi, duyar kelebek vana, kelebek vana bursa,duyar surgulu vana, surgulu vana bursa, duyar surgulu vana bursa,yukselen milli vana, yukselen milli vana bursa, duyar yukselen milli vana, duyar emniyet ventili, emniyet ventili bursa, emniyet ventili turkiye, duyar yangin hidranti, duyar kompansotor, kompansator, duyar buhar separatoru, buhar separatoru bursa, duyar balans vana, duyar balans vanasi, duyar balans vanasi bursa,balans vanasi bursa, duyar kondenstop, duyar kondenstop bursa, kondenstop bursa, duyar kontrol vanalari, duyar kontrol vanasi, kontrol vanasi, duyar termostatik vana, duyar termostatik vanasi, duyar termostatik vana bursa, duyar termostatik vanasi bursa, kose, kose yangin, kose bursa, kose yangin bursa, kose yangin dolabi, kose yangin dolabi bursa, bursa yangin, bursa yangin dolabi, yangin dolabi bursa, kose yangin tanki, kose yangin tanki bursa, kose kopuk tanki, kopuk tanki bursa, kose kopuk tanki bursa, kose kopuklu sondurme, kose meta , kose meta teknolojik, duyar meta teknolojik, duyar meta teknolojik bayi, kose menanjor, menanjor bursa, kose menanjor bursa, kose davlumbaz sondurme sistemi, davlumbaz sondurme sistemleri,kose lans, lans bursa, kose lans bursa, lans, kose kopuk lansi, kopuk lansi, kopuk lansi bursa, itfaiye baglanti agzi, itfaiye baglanti agzi bursa, kose sprinkler, sprinkler, sprinkler bursa, islak alarm vanasi, islak alarm vana, kuru alarm vana, kuru alarm vanasi, kuru alarm vanasi bursa, izleme anahtari, izleme anahrasi kelebek vanasi, test drenaj vana, test drenaj vanasi bursa, flow metre, flow metre bursa, kose flow metre, alis olcer, kose alis olcer, akis olcer bursa, kose flow switch, flow svich, flow swich, kose relief valve, relief walve, kose basinc dusurucu, basinc dusurucu bursa, kose basinc dusurucu bursa, kose pendent sprinkler, pendent sprinkler, pendent sprink, pendent sprink bursa, pendent sprinkler bursa, kose side well sprikler, side well sprikler, side vell sprik, kose side vell sprikler, kose rozet, rozet, meta rozet, kaplin, kaplin bursa, kaplin bayi, kaplin bayii, kaplin grow, kaplin grov, kaplin grow bursa, kaplin grov bursa, rijit kaplin, sabit kaplin, sabit kaplin bursa, bursa kaplin, esnek kaplin, bursa, yiv acma makinasi, yiv acma makinasi bursa, yiv acma makinasi turkiye, yivli tesisat, yivli tesisat bursa, asy yukselen milli vana, asy bursa, asy meta, asy meta teknolojik, fm200 fm 200, fm 200 bayi, fm 200 bursa, fm200 bursa, ul belge, ul belgeli, ul belge bursa, fm 200 belgeli, fm 200 belgesi, fm200 belgeli, fm 200 belgeli bursa, fm belgesi, fm belgeli, fm belgeli bursa, fm belgeli meta teknolojik, ulfm belgeli, ulfm belgesi, ulfm belgeli bursa, ulfm, ulfm belgeli meta teknolojik, ul-fm belgesi, ul-fm, ul-fm belgeli, ul-fm belgeli meta teknolojik, nfpa, nfpa belge,nfpa belgeli, nfpa belgeli meta teknolojik, nfpa belgesi, rbm, rbm bursa, rbm turkiye, rbm turkiye bayi, rbm turkiye bayii, rbm bursa bayi,rbm bursa bayii, rbm bursa bayisi, rbm turkiye bayisi, rbm basinc salteri, alinox, dlinox, rbm dlinox, rmb alinox, kazan besi suyu ventili, rbm termostatik vana, termostatik vana, termostatik vana bursa, 3 yollu vana, uc yollu vana, 2 yollu vana iki yollu vana, rbm 3 yollu vana, rbm uc yollu vana, 3 yollu motorlu vana, uc yollu motorlu vana, 2 yollu motorlu vana, iki yollu motorlu vana, motorlu vana bursa, motorlu vana bursa bayi, rbm motorlu vana bursa, wilo motorlu vana, fon-coil motorlu vana, foncoil motorlu vana, yerden isitma, yerden istma sistemi, yerden isitma sistemi bursa,duvardan isitma, duvardan isitma bursa, meta duvardan isitma, yerden isitma kollektoru, kilitlenebilir vana, kilitlenebilir vana bursa, bursa kilitlenebilir vana, kilitlenebilir vana bayi, vasa sette purjor, vasa sette purjor bursa, otomatik purjor, otomatik purjor bursa, rinox, rinox bursa, bursa rinox, termostatik karistirici, bursa termostatik karistirici, termostatik karistirici bursa, manyetik kirec tutucu, manyetik kirec tutucu bursa, bursa manyetik kirec tutucu, anti kalker, anti kalker bursa, bursa anti kalker, oda termostadi, oda termostadi bursa, bursa oda termostadi, isi pay olcer, isi pay olcer bursa, bursa isi pay olcer, esinoks, esinoks bursa bayi, bursa esinoks bayi, bursa esinoks, esimoks meta teknolojik, esinoks su deposu, su deposu, su deposu bursa, bursa su deposu, esinoks moduler su deposu, moduler su deposu, moduler su deposu meta teknolojik, moduler paslanmaz su deposu, esinoks moduler paslanmaz su deposu, paslanmaz su deposu, paslanmaz su deposu bursa, esinoks moduler paslanmaz su deposu, moduler galveniz su deposu, moduler galvenis su deposu, galveniz depo, galveniz su deposu, esinoks victaulic, victaulic, victaulic bursa, victaulic bayi, victaulic kaplin, victaulic kaplin bursa, haci ayvaz, haci ayvaz bayi, haci ayvaz bursa, haci ayvaz bursa bayi, haci ayvaz bursa bayii, ayvaz bayi, ayvaz bayii, haci ayvaz bayi bursa, ayvaz bayi bursa, meta pompa, meta yangin, meta vana, meta depo, meta su deposu, teknolojik vana, teknolojik su deposu, teknolojik yangin, yangin dolabi bursa, yangin dolabi, meta bursa pompa, bursa pompa, pompa bursa, yangin pompasi bursa, rbm bursa pompa, bursa rbm pompa, bursa wilo, wilo bursa, wilo meta teknolojik, meta teknolojik wilo, wilo yangin, wilo turkiye, wilo bursa turkiye, yangin belgesi, vana wilo, wilo wana,wilo servis, wilo servis bursa, wilo ana bayi, wilo ana bayi bursa, wilo ana bayi turkiye, wilo pompa ana bayi, wilo pompa bursa ana bayi, wilo pompa turkiye ana bayi,rbm ana bayi, rbm bursa ana bayi, rbm turkiye ana bayi, rbm bursa bayisi, turkiye rbm bayisi, bursa rbm bayisi, turkiye rbm, bursa, rbm, istanbul rbm, ankara rbm, ana bayi, ana bayiler, bursa ana bayisi, bursa ana bayiler, rbm turkiye distiributoru,

    Reply
  14. Kemal

    altili tahmin ve yorum sitesi

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *