I can remember Jan the Toyota lady when she was just a mom in stiletto heels talking up the great deal she got on a minivan. Apparently it was such a great deal she then went to work in a Toyota showroom.
They want you to be able to weep copious tears when you hear “The Little Drummer Boy” played for the 83,567th time.
The ubiquity and volume of these commercials is a pretty good indicator of how massively-profitable these plans are for the companies offering them.
Of course I don’t really have evidence but seems to me there really aren’t that many companies. For example, I asked Google about the company that uses “Martha” and came up with several different phone numbers.
Advertising on television? Yes, not hundreds (because though there are certainly hundreds of companies offering Medicare Advantage and related plans, many of them aren’t big enough to buy tv time–which doesn’t mean that they aren’t profitable, just that they haven’t grown as large as Humana and Blue Cross and Cigna and such).
The amount of money networks and local affiliates take in from M.A.-selling companies, however few, must be quite impressive, though. Unless they get a special rate–and why would they?
I notice that they all make of point of saying that the caller will need to give their zip code to see if they qualify for extra benefits. That always sounded a bit scammy to me; either they want the caller to think they’re getting some deal that’s not available to everyone, or it’s part of some effort to gather data on the people who call.
There was one, for prescription drugs and how Medicare and Medicaid (one or the other or both), want to negotiate drug prices, which is apparently a bad thing.
The cornerstone of the argument was a young lady purportedly from “Ontario, Canada,” who was complaining that under her province’s health system, with government-negotiated prices from suppliers, she couldn’t afford what she needed. (Note that paying for prescription drugs is on the consumer in Ontario, with a few exceptions, so she might not be wrong.)
But here’s the thing: all provinces in Canada negotiate drug prices with suppliers, using an economy of scale, to make them as low as possible to consumers. In other words, suppliers have a choice: go though the expensive process of negotiating with individual pharmacies or pharmacy chains such as Shopper’s Drug Mart, or accept the lower government price in order to sell through all Ontario pharmacies. Guess what garners more revenue, even if it is on a lower cost-per-unit basis?
I also notice that the commercials featuring the sufferer from “Ontario, Canada” have been pulled. I’d presume that some people in the US or Canada called BS on her claims, or at least asked the organization that sponsored these spots to cite their claims. Besides, Ontario is huge–it can take over 24 hours to drive across it. Where, specifically, is this “Ontario, Canada” woman from in Ontario? Uppsala, Ignace, or Marathon; or Toronto, London, or Kingston?
Ontario? I thought that most Hollywood productions in Canada went to Vancouver…
Actually, what you can get varies by where you live. I was speaking to someone who wasn’t selling, just reviewing and advising, and I was informed that my state/county didn’t qualify for a bunch of things. In fact, I was told to just hold on to the insurance I carried into my retirement and not take anything but Part A - matching what I had would cost more than I was already paying. I have friends in similar situations and they did just that. So it’s not necessarily scammy, it’s just dependent on local laws/rules/whatever.
I thought the same thing last year. Unfortunately, as soon as all the Medicare ads went away, the void was filled with ads for “The General” car insurance. Like Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, it’s always something.
But how’s Jimmie Walker going to keep busy until it’s time to film another batch of Medicare Advantage commercials next year?
I thought it was interesting when they started showing stupid commercials acknowledging that their previous stupid commercials caused people to not take them seriously.
The new USAA ads with Rob Gronkowski are almost as bad. They aren’t touting the great service they can offer to me, they’re bragging that they withhold it from people who aren’t members of the military. Why would that be a selling point? As near as I can tell, they’re trying to appeal to the vindictive asshole market.
A large demographic.
Here it is sports betting. I’d hoped they ads would have ended after betting became legal in AZ, but they’ve only intensified. Some commercial breaks are nothing BUT sports betting aps. I think we have four (at least) competing aps. And i hate every last one of their spokesfolk.
aka “The Rodgers Rate”, if you’re Aaron
Plus they make “loveable scamp” Gronk look brain damaged. No, Gronk, you don’t get to buy from them. Maybe it’s really a PSA for the subtle dangers of CTE.
And now Caesars has a commercial with the Manning family, Archie, and Peyton, and Eli, and Cooper. All of them.
That’s right. A lot of what people can get from these companies is wholly dependent on how their state treats Medicaid (not Medicare)—in states in which Medicaid covers few people under very restrictive conditions, the companies can’t give you much of what Jimmy Walker and Joe Namath (et al) are touting.
The $148.50 deducted each month from the Social Security checks of those 65 and older–which pays for Part B coverage–is part of what’s in play. If you qualify for Medicaid due to the state you live in, the company can either give that money back to you (because they’re reimbursed by Medicaid themselves) or play with it by giving you ‘meals’ or ‘rides to the doctor’ or whatever else they think will attract your business.
Basically the business plan for these companies is to extract as much from the federal government as possible in your name (both Medicare and Medicaid), while giving you enough “stuff” to keep you signed up with that particular company. The company gets to keep whatever they extract from the Feds but don’t have to pay out for you (so rationing care is a must—but of course they don’t put that in the commercials!)
Whoever makes the commercials for McCormick spices thinks it’s funny that a woman carrying her kid shakes spices onto the kid’s head. Then she blows the spices away. How oblivious to the kid’s presence do you have to be to do that?
I think that one’s sort of cute…
It appeared to me that she was holding the spice jar and spoon high enough that the baby couldn’t see it and grab for it, throwing her pouring accuracy off as a result. That, along with other quick scenes shown in the commercial, also seemed to be acknowledgement that lots of people don’t actually measure their spices carefully.
I thought the McCormick commercials were saying, for hard-working moms like yourself who have to produce a big family meal while still holding the baby.
It’s OK, as long as McCormick isn’t promoting spices to be used in preparing tasty child casseroles.