One of the most prominent advertisers during the Winter Olympics is hawking goods that few households will ever need: hand-held ultrasound imaging equipment or nationwide computer networks for medical records.
The prime-time television ads by GE Healthcare, the medical technologies arm of General Electric Co., show vignettes with doctors, patients and hospital technology that coincide with the national debate over heath care reform. And the political timing is hardly a coincidence, according to media and industry analysts. Since he took over as chief executive of GE Healthcare in 2008, John Dineen has made no secret that he wants to influence Washington’s policies — not least because federal spending caps on imaging reimbursements hit hard at GE’s diagnostic imaging group in Waukesha, which laid off several hundred workers over the past two years.
“Companies like GE want to position themselves as good guys who are helping save lives, not bad guys who are driving up costs,” said Andy Larsen, a partner at the Milwaukee-based Boelter & Lincoln advertising agency.
The ads, replete with spectacular scenery and special effects, represent GE Healthcare’s largest-ever advertising campaign targeted at a consumer audience, said Brian Johnson, head of advertising for GE Healthcare. Neither Johnson nor GE spokesmen were willing to say how much was spent on the campaign.
“The whole idea is to show how we are changing the conversation about health care, which typically has been negative, to one that’s more optimistic, one with more possibilities,” Johnson said in an interview from Vancouver, British Columbia.
GE’s ads contrast sharply with other fare during mega-sports events, including the Super Bowl, which prominently featured Doritos. Other big advertisers for the Olympics included a slew of automakers, including scandal-plagued Toyota, as well as Coca-Cola, credit card companies, McDonald’s and the U.S. Census.
One thing is clear, however. GE managed to reach a large audience.
Audience ratings for NBC’s coverage of the Olympics have been strong. A week ago, Fox’s “American Idol” finished second in its time period for the first time ever, with 18.63 million viewers vs. 30.1 million for the Vancouver games, Larsen said, citing data from Nielsen Media Research.
On some nights, NBC’s Olympics drew more viewers than Fox, CBS and ABC combined, Larsen said.
GE has said it will invest $6 billion by 2015 in new systems and services designed to drive down costs while expanding access and improving quality. GE Healthcare, which operates globally, said rich and poor nations alike are seeking the same broad objectives.
A Manhattan ad agency, BBDO New York, created the ads.
The one titled “Take a Look” shows a sequence of ancient and often poor villages, starting with the Bronze Age, where doctors want to “take a look” at a young patient. It’s not until the episodes reach a modern clinic, however, that a doctor pulls out a GE V-scan pocket-sized ultrasound to begin a diagnosis.
Engineers in Wisconsin helped develop the V-scan (“roughly the size of a smart phone,” according to GE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) although it was largely produced in Europe, a GE spokesman said.
The ad titled “Stadium” showcases other Wisconsin technology in an ad meant to entertain. A patient lies on an operating table on the 50-yard line of a American stadium packed with cheering fans while surgeons and doctors run out of the tunnel as the announcer shouts their names (“He puts the ‘rad’ in radiology!”).
The anesthesia equipment is built in Madison, and the monitoring equipment comes from Waukesha, Johnson said.
“The products are in there as supporting cast members,” Johnson said.
An ad touting electronic medical records, called “Doctors,” is meant to show gains in efficiency from networks that collect all of a patients’ medical history in one place. GE’s medical information systems business is located in Barrington, Ill.
GE kept its global headquarters for medical systems in Waukesha until 2004, when it moved to London, although it kept much of its research and production in southeastern Wisconsin.
GE Healthcare still derives 60% of its $17 billion in annual sales from operations based around metro Milwaukee.