Making Audio Assistive Technology Sexy . . .

Hearing loss seems to strike the men in my family for one reason or another. My Grandpa worked in a metal stamping plant in the 50's-70's. My Dad lost hearing in one of his ears after a really bad car accident. I like to soup-up MINIs and that usually ends-up making them quite a bit louder than factory specification.

Since about 5 years ago, I now wear earplugs A LOT--concerts, banging a hammer when building things, grinding metal, taking my car to have dyno testing done-- whatever it takes to preserve the hearing that I have left. (I'm sure that some has been lost to the impatience of youth and/or non-consideration of loudness). When I have a son or a daughter, this child will have a pair of earplugs tucked in their jacket so that I can start them early on hearing protection.

OK, the stage for my personal interest in audio assistive technology is now set. The image above shows a product from a company called Widex called the mind440. This device blew my mind this week, but not for its physical design (which I believe is much more good than bad BTW). Instead, they did a fairly sexy online campaign for the mind440 that you can check out here:

http://campaign.widex.com/flashcampaign/mind440/Site/uk/Platform.html?gclid=CPCWn8D_3ZsCFRlcagodnjQsAQ


So this site has some vignettes that are like a Chanel commercial at times. However, it mixes some enticing imagery with key pieces of consumer info that really hit the target areas of "Why do I need this?". The Flash animations, video, site styling, & layout give an aura of high-design to the mind440. It's a very de-stigmatizing approach to advertising this type of assistive technology. Widex chose to deal more with using their product as lifestyle maintenance rather than dwelling on hearing loss. Bravo to Widex!

-Clint

P.S. (I'm going to do a little research to see what ad agency/firm they used to pull this production together. I'll report back once I know more.)