Differences

This is part of a much larger ad that appeared in The Kansas City Star of April 14, 2002. This part alone measures 27 square inches, and it's the first thing anyone would read, particularly since it's at the very top of the layout.

It's an ad for a respected teaching hospital called Kansas University Medical Center, a campus of KU. According to thoracic surgeon Jeffrey Piehler, M.D.,

"There are differences in care at an Academic
Medical Center . . . often, critical differences."

Do you think this is really what the marketing department for KUMC meant to convey?

Piehler isn't comparing KUMC to some podunk, no-name community hospital, he's telling us that at KUMC there are differences in care, apparently quite a few of them critical.

I don't know about you, but if I have a choice I want the good care.

Coincidentally, this ad appeared on the reverse side of the newspaper page I previously scanned here.

Update of February 28, 2006: The ad of which this is the topmost two-thirds for Blue Cross Blue Shield, oops, BlueCross BlueShield of Kansas City occupies the entirety of the outside back cover (the most expensive possible single page) of the "Business Weekly" supplement to today's edition of The Kansas City Star.

Clearly Blue Cross Blue Shield wants you to believe that you should choose the daily serving of fruit medley over the blood pressure medicine because it's more economical, what with the references to the 68 cents and the 65 dollars.

But it's important to note that the figure of 68 cents per serving refers to only one-fifth of the daily servings that are recommended. At five servings a day times 30 days that's $102 a month, or nearly 57% more expensive than the medicine.

Who wrote and approved this advertisement, and did all of them really fail to realize that they'd made a math mistake of a whopping $37 per month? If they knew it and decided to publish anyway, how else are they trying to fool you?