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Opinion: Nix the bald cancer patient motif. Precision medicine needs precision marketing
Every time I see a pharmaceutical or health care ad or other marketing material that features a bald cancer patient, I get mad. As a marketer in the cancer technology and clinical research space, I’ve grown tired of the imagery used to promote cancer therapies not keeping pace with the remarkable innovations in this area.
Everyone recognizes the bald cancer patient motif. It’s usually a woman wearing a scarf to cover her shiny head. It is supposed to signify struggle and courage in the face of misfortune. It evokes sympathy: She admirably humanizes a terrible disease.
