AHA Branding Goes Full Monty
With 447 original research sessions featuring some 4,238 abstracts, there’s some serious medicine being presented here at the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando. From the look of it, there’s also some serious shopping being done.
AHA has taken a full-monty approach to merchandising, offering everything from branded polo shirts and pedometers to BBQ tool kits, iPhone skins and wine charms. For the wee ones, there are bibs, balloons, and bears.
Thinking Christmas? Why not pick up a 3D Christmas ornament, a pair of gold or silver cuff links or a “Red Dress” necklace? Just in case your holidays get out of hand, the AHA has no less than seven cookbooks to help get you back on track.
Still not satisfied with the 120 items offered in the oft-crowded AHA booth, attendees can head to the exhibit hall where the association has once again invited non-pharma merchants onto the floor to hawk such wares as $10 cashmere scarves, 15-minute messages, and bejeweled clogs.
The efforts seem to be paying off with AHA’s call for its attendees to wear red on Nov. 14 answered by a fair number of those not tempted by Orlando’s sunshine.
Some cynics may cringe at the commercialization, but in these austere times, it’s a good strategy for medical organizations to trade on their brand name. And if it gets a health message out to the public, even better.
---By Patrice Wendling (On Twitter @pwendl)