Aid in the ear

Who still knows the cute and beautiful plush animals with the well-known slogan “button in the ear”?
Already as a young girl I felt a great love for these cuddly toys. Through the button in my ear slogan, I knew that they were real and that made my love even bigger. Unfortunately also much more expensive and so far I have only looked at this love in the shops.

Recently this slogan, button in the ear, came to me again, when a discussion began around the hearing aid advertisement. In my last article, Disclaimer, I already reported about it.

The slogan “button in the ear” is already very old, but even today many people still associate the slogan immediately with the brand (which I don’t mention here to do without advertising).
In terms of advertising, they already did a good thing back then.
Even today there are certain advertisements from the past that I still remember. But of the current advertisements only very rarely one remains in my memory: they are mostly too fast, too vague, too noisy and too complicated.

But outstanding and specific advertising, which I think is called earwurms in music, could make a difference for hearing aids. A German chain of acousticians has, consciously or unconsciously, played with the button in the ear slogan and is successful with it.
All that is needed is a gripping, powerful slogan that could ensure that hearing aids come out of the taboo sphere, are no longer seen as old-fashioned, but as something independent of age, something modern and practical, which one not only needs but also likes to wear and which corresponds to the constantly advancing technology.

In particular, the threshold should be lowered for people with hearing loss who are taking the step of going to a hearing care professional for the first time.
I still remember my first visit very well, about 35 years ago. I stopped in front of the shop window and hesitated to enter the shop, as if my hearing loss had been finally confirmed by my entry and the fitting of a hearing aid and there was no way back for me afterwards. Which was true, of course, but it was even harder by then than it is now.
In the meantime much has improved, but the decision whether to buy a first hearing aid or not (yet) still has to be made by many people today. Unfortunately, this decision is often pushed too far ahead until postponement is really no longer possible.

That is why it is so important that the advertising of hearing aids and acousticians is not too promising, but realistic, so that one is not disappointed with the first hearing aid, if one still thinks that “with hearing aid the world opens up again” .
The advertising should also make it clear that hearing impairment is independent of age and that the (first) hearing aid should be accepted in the same way as the (first) pair of glasses. Only then can the target group of the first hearing aid users be reached and their decision for a hearing aid made earlier.

In my opinion, all hearing aid advertising has primarily this social responsibility to contribute to more acceptance, less taboos and stigmatisation. Only then will the sale come, because with more acceptance, more people will decide (earlier) for a hearing aid and the sales will increase anyway.