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Allergies and Damage Control

May 22, 2007

If you have seasonal allergies, please read this. If you do not, don’t worry. There is a marketing message as well.

My wife watches Oprah sometimes. A few weeks ago she saw the show with Dr. Oz. He mentioned a nose bidet (neti pot) completely relieved allergy symptoms. When my allergies acted up again, she mentioned it. My first thought was that it might help the nose, but the eyes were the worst and it could not possibly help the eyes that well.

A week later, I was taking the usual regiment of over-the-counter allergy pills and eye drops (that combined, still left me feeling groggy and did not work well.) The pills were simply not working and I told my wife to explain this nose thing to me again. Then I went to the drug store and bought one, because there was nothing to lose other than a few dollars on a tea cup for the nose.

Here is the freaky thing. The really upsetting thing for me… It worked. Not just half way like the expensive pills and drops. Simple salt water gave me back a very high quality of life that is usually 8 weeks of suffering. 3 times a day I spend 10 seconds using that stupid tea cup to wash my nasal passages and I do not have ichy eyes or any other allergy symptoms. Even after spending the day outside, I only have the slightest ichy sensation.

OK, I wanted to tell the story to help other people suffering from allergies. Now the marketing part. What a nightmare for the companies selling their pills that do not work well. I have spent my last dollar on allergy remedies. Thanks to Oprah and Dr. Oz, I am guessing a few other people have also. My wife watched the follow up show yesterday and they had testimonials of how that information had changed people’s lives. They also said the nose bidet (nasal wash) were selling out everywhere and people were complaining because they couldn’t find them.

It was the right message at the right time that took away peoples pain and save them money.

How do the pharms do damage control? What can they say? Here are some of my ideas.

  • Chemicals are better
  • If it works too well, you will forget you have allergies and forget to use the bidet and then the allergies will come back.
  • That sounds very new age, you should not trust it.
  • Salt water? Researchers and doctors did not invent that.
  • No studies have been done….nor will we ever do any…..
  • This is the path to medicinal marijuana use.
  • Not having any allergy symptoms is highly addictive
  • Don’t tell your friends. Lets just keep it our little secret.

Those are my suggestions for a PR campaign doing damage control.

Let me leave you with one thought. If I had a cure for cancer, but I was making more money on chemotheropy, would it be ethical for me to withhold the cure? It is just business, right?

Update:  Within one hour of this post going live, Dr Hana emailed me.  She is an expert in this field and has a product on her website: http://www.nasopure.com - I am very impressed that she is using the right tools to contact relevant people quickly.

?

- Thank You!

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

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