Dentists? Hmmmm … let’s see. Pain, time holes, insurance worries, guilt? Dentists get a bad rap when all they are trying to do is help us avoid the car crash that is bound to happen when we don’t see them on a regular basis. It is a monument to the limitations of preventative medicine. Most dental ads try to dodge this bullet but showing happy, beautiful, pain-free people with nothing on their minds but happy thoughts. I decided to do a test in the local newspaper with a series of ads that don’t sugar coat (HA!) the issue. They ran in rotation for about two months and performed remarkably well. Simple direct graphics with a bit of edginess that don’t insult the reader. What’s even better is that they stand out from the rest of the Zoloft inspired dental ads running in the same paper. Gary is a good friend of mine (and my dentist). It is nice to have somebody who trusts my ideas and is not afraid to test outside of the box.

Just in case you were wondering. The best performing ad? The toothache guy. The least performing ad? The pretty girl with perfect teeth. Of course it could be the offer. I have never been excited by teeth whitening. It could be because it is an inexpensive loss leader. But since every dentist does it, it reads like white noise to me.

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