Gosh we just cannot escape even a small glimpse of advertising in our face today and I am thinking here there’s a purpose for both professional advice and to have the sponsors pop in here too on this new website, Sharecare.com; and some of those responses may be more of “an idea or an opinion” so the word according to this article is to check with your doctor. I’m going to do that anyway I would just rather use Dr. Google for some general information and then talk to my doctor, so why mess with this? I don’t think I’m very comfortable having the possibility of United Health Care answering my questions as it appears they could be one of those in a position to respond. 
I believe the whole idea here is to present information, question and answers and of course advertising in a more appealing format for the consumer. I love Dr. Oz and he’s included in here too but it kind of looks like he’s being marketed pretty heavily as well and that’ was one of the reasons I liked him, none of the advertising in the way but it seems like that is changing too. The New York Times provided the image above from a preview and again do I want Dove in here giving me advice when I know it’s really just marketing?
With so much marketing out there today do you think branding is really that important any more, I’m certainly not worried much at all about “branding” any long and my message to some of those marketing today would be to please stay out of my face as I am already inundated 
with enough information and this is way too disruptive in my book to provide much use. It’s changed since web pages with help first came on the scene and now it’s more of a clutter and more to dig though and determine what really is useful. With doing this blog I get all kinds of stuff in email and I only publish what I consider to be helpful and informative and not a plug for Dr. Smith that has some earth shattering diet or cookies to sell.
I think we have crossed the line and crowd sourced ourselves right out of a whole lot value here and I guess we can wait for the next bomb shell of a marketing idea to hit the web <grin>. This is just so overdone and will stand to confuse consumers even beyond where it is now. I do talk with professionals too about stuff like this and much of it irritates them as well and makes it much more difficult in working with patients as they have to unexplain what is not relive to them. You may feel different but I’ll check back in a year and see what this site is doing then and see how it ranks up with those who kill time on Farmville, which I have never even seen or have the slightest interest. BD
THE expression “sharing is caring” was coined long before the Internet and social media like Facebook and Twitter made it easier for information, opinions and advertising to be shared among multitudes.
Starting on Thursday, the Web site Sharecare.com is to arrive, offering what its proprietors call an interactive social Q.& A. platform to provide consumers with what they want to know on health and wellness subjects — with the A’s being contributed by, among others, marketers.
Sharecare.com will begin with content contributed by organizations like AARP, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins and the National Academy of Sports Medicine, along with medical professionals like Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Those contributors are to be known as experts on the site. There is another label, knowledge partners, for marketers that are paying an estimated $1 million to $7 million to become sponsors of Sharecare.com. The initial roster is composed of Colgate-Palmolive, for Colgate oral care products; the Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals division of Johnson & Johnson; the Medicines Company, a drug maker; Pfizer; Unilever, for Dove skin-care products; UnitedHealthcare, the health insurer; and Walgreen, for its Walgreens drug stores.
Anyone who reads content on Sharecare.com, whatever the source, will “have to work with their health care providers to make sure they’re making the best decisions about what the next steps would be” for any condition they want treated, Mr. Ewing said.
Advertising - Some of Sharecare.com’s Health Advice Will Be From Advertisers - NYTimes.com
Wow.What a nice post!Your post is an excellent example of why I keep coming back to read your excellent quality content that is forever updated.I would like to read newer posts and to share my thoughts with you.Thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteLife's Too Good
Do you think we, as consumers, are so naive as to not know that there are many sponsors behind this 11 week campaign using Dr. Oz as the frontman? We all can see the Nike brand all over the clothes of the coaches. "If you see one cockroach, there are many more you can't see."
ReplyDeleteWe all know that. We can't get away from the marketing ploys today. However, we can sift through and find what is useful, and not fall for the advertising if we don't want to buy those products.
What I am concerned about is the access we have granted in our participation of our personal information that can be sold to other marketers. We might even find our computers infected with viruses by granting access to our email addresses and our profiles. My computer is running so slow since I signed up and I am wondering if there is a connection between Oz's promotion and my computer problem.
I picked up a few good tips but now I wish I had not signed up. Most of this information is available through other sources.