A new set of Obamacare ads, brought to you by the embarrassing and odious “brosurance” campaign developed by ProgressNow Colorado and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, are causing controversy due to their strident tone. Of greatest concern is the way one ad in particular marginalizes women. The ad reads:
“OMG, he’s hot! Let’s hope he’s as easy to get as this birth control. My health insurance covers the pill, which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers.”
We get it – sex sells. That said, ProgressNow is part of a contingent that has screamed “war on women” for every Republican candidate misstep. For the group to, then, turn around and reduce women to sex organs and one night stands is hypocritical at best. Compass Colorado’s Kelly Maher issued a press release yesterday criticizing the ads:
“This ad campaign is desperately trying to distract from the fact that exchange sign-ups have essentially ground to a halt. While nearly a quarter of a million Coloradans have had their plans canceled, ProgressNow Colorado and Colorado Consumer Health Initiative are demeaning and belittling women with shallow sexual caricatures and making light of serious women’s health issues.”
The ads’ carefree demeanor seems particularly tone deaf in light of the fact that 250,000 Coloradans have lost their health insurance as a result of Obamacare. Unfortunately, the reach of these ads isn’t confined to Colorado as the uproar over the ads has gone national. Let’s be really clear: this is an embarrassment to our state.
Harsha Gangadharbatla, an associate professor of advertising at the University of Colorado at Boulder, also thinks the ads are misguided. Here’s her take in The Denver Post:
“I think it’s a strategic mistake. Consumers could see it as a joke, making it appear not to be a serious issue. And the issue of health care is clearly a serious issue in the United States. There’s already so many negative headlines and problematic issues out there with rollout of Obamacare, so why add fuel with ads like these, if the true intent is to enroll more young people.”
It’s also worth noting that Colorado exchange enrollment rate has decreased substantially since the Brosurance/Got Insurance campaign began October 20. So much for attracting would-be enrollees.
Happy your life & Long Life
Sally-Ann June Archie I don't care what they prefer … those policies were actuarially unsound and represented both a gyp [since people were not getting comprehensive coverage] and cherry picking [ since people who had even minor pre-existing policies were often excluded]. The reputable company where I work – a major insurer – got out of that racket two decades ago. But to answer your question: no, because much American shopping is based on myth and status, NOT substance … behavioral economics all the way …
Lets look at this as an offer to consumers. Pay us $300 a month and you can get the $9 a month pill for free. Great deal!
Wouldn't the people getting canclled know better what they prefer? How is NPR and it's representatives the people to determine that? And even if the exchanges are better for them, it is not constitutional to force people to get things they don't want to. Why not have those people assess what they need and make that choice for themselves? Nothing wrong with this picture of forcing people to buy things they can't afford or taking away what they can afford. Nothing wrong at all.
It's scary how many people are willing to give up the right to choose because others are smarter than them and they know what is good for me. No, they don't.
So it's ok for liberals to scream at the top of their lungs how Republicans have this phony war on women. But it's ok for them to demean women in these disgusting ads!
Women wake up!
"The ads’ carefree demeanor seems particularly tone deaf in light of the fact that 250,000 Coloradans have lost their health insurance as a result of Obamacare. " Deeply misleading. Julie Ravner of NPR was on today … according to her, a lot of people getting cancelled would be better off under the exchanges … I know the website's a mess, but it's not over yet …
Thank goodness for women's lib , right? To echo Sue's comment, no longer is a woman defined by her ability to procreate (although that was usually a feminist straw man, but just go with it for a moment), now women are proudly, loudly, and unimpeachably defined by … their self-inflicted INability to procreate? You have got to be kidding me. My first daughter will be born any day now, and my job as a father will be vastly more difficult thanks to the self-hating, reductionist tripe that lies at the heart of this ad and what passes for feminism these days.
CO Peaks….did you hack into my e-mail? Your article just made ALL the same points I have been forwarding all day to friends and fam who think the ACA is "the answer"! <insert eye-roll> Except yours has all these great sources! THNX! As a mother of a 13-year old daughter this "new, brave world of CO whack-jobs" is making it increasingly difficult to convince her that her value and self-worth should be achieved thru integrity, talent and academic success…. when everywhere she looks, being a "hoochie" slut with access to FREE stuff is glamorized and promoted! Come on all you Dem/Libs/Progs! let's talk about that "War on Women" shall we?…..anyone???…….<crickets>…..
Awful. Sad that we pay for this to be used by our government to advertise and promote a product that we are legally compelled to purchase. It's all Bizarro World stuff at this point.
With all due respect, grotesquely offensive garbage like this is at least as much the consequence of the libertarian ethos that this blog seems to so readily embrace as it is of Obamacare itself.
What makes this so offensive is not that it promotes a profoundly bad piece of legislation, although it does do that, but that it crassly glorifies a culture of hedonic rot–the same culture on which the whole ACA rests, especially the contraceptive mandate.
These things bear pointing out, but Republicans are so shamefully terrified at coming across as anti-woman stooges that they often don't make the point. So instead we sit back and groan over hideously bad advertising. Yes, of course this is what they cane up with. Why did you expect better from the folks who decided that contraceptives were an inalienable right to the exclusion of religious liberty for millions of Americans?
I just looked this up to see if it was a joke/scam ad… imagine my surprise when I didn't bet a Snopes hoax link but this one. This is a horrible ad and yes, I too, am very offended.