So Many Smiling Faces on Hearing Aid Websites

#1

And it just makes me wonder every time I click on a so-and-so HA website, why are all these people (in ads) so over joyed to be wearing new hearing aids? I mean has anyone really seen someone walking out of a audiologist’s office or hearing specialist’s studio with a really big smile on their face after buying expensive hearing aids? Not me, especially for first time users.

Now that’s not to say that some/many aid users aren’t pleasantly surprisedly to see an improvement in their hearing when trading in their old aid for a better replacement. That’s certainly a good feeling, but I don’t know if its a “eureka moment”. And I’m not talking about someone who is deaf, who has a CI turned on for the first time. Now that is a “Aha Moment”.

Just wish all these HA manufactures would cut out all these paid smiling models who seem over joyed to be wearing a piece of plastic in their ear(s). It ain’t that way in really life but then again “image is everything”.

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#2

I love it every time I get a new set. For my very first set the audiologist handed me some POS booklet on how not to be ashamed of wearing HAs & I laughed at her. I love getting new tech that helps me live my life better. So yeah, sign me up to be a smiling HA model!

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#3

They also all look quite wealthy, so maybe that is why they are smiling! :grin:

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#4

Yes it takes a lot of acting skill to smile at the camera and of course at the the end of the “shoot” they discard there loaner hearing aids, to never wear again.

#5

Yesterday I left my audis’ office with a smile on my face. Got my custom ear molds which I barely feel in my ears, got 96% word recognition score and felt great :upside_down_face:

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#6

I probably walked out of the office with a smile on my face when I got my first hearing aids. I mean the audi asked (for the first out of about a hundred times) ‘how does that sound?’ and I probably said they sounded great because I could hear these sounds I hadn’t heard in years. It was only after I realised that I couldn’t understand anybody a whole lot better that the smile started to fade.

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#7

what hearing aids do you wear?

#8

Oticon Opn S1 …

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#9

I had that magic moment with my Widex Evokes, walked out onto the high street and everything just sounded amazing-a bit like in the cinema with full surround sound and great quality with all the richness of sounds and hearing what people passing by were saying. I know it sometimes doesn’t happen and it’s really hard when that’s not the case.

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#10

With mild to moderate hearing loss, I wore my first hearing aids 12 yes ago with a smile. They worked well for me And made it possible for me to continue practicing law for another 10 years. But most people don’t recognize gradual hearing loss that quickly, so the adjustment is slower, and the worse the hearing loss, the more challenging it is.
Now my hearing is worse, and I have the same challenges with speech in noise as everyone else. But occasionally I’ll forget to put on my hearing aids and I’m starkly reminded how much they help.

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#11

Lawyer. The difference in how noisy my old Prius is versus a Lincoln is the price of replacing the dead batteries in my HAs.

Seriously, when I get in the car is when I realize I have forgotten to put my ears in. :crazy_face:

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#12

Me.
The first time I walked out with HAs my smile was from ear to ear. I entered just to ask questions about price, didn’t have any idea about trial, and before one hour I walked out testing new hearing aids for free. I was delighted.

Yes, they’re expensive; yes, when I walk out from my audiologist office my smile is pretty like those advertisements.

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#13

Don’t forget about the medicine commercials - they always show young(er/ish) fairly trim looking people hawking meds for horrible conditions whilst being very chipper engaging in some outdoor activity.

HA! in reality, these people are more likely to be very sickly, obese, and hiding in a dark living room watching old movies. :sweat_smile:

#14

It’s not just medicine and hearing aids–this is standard advertising practice. Ads are not to provide info–they are to create an image of a happier you.

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#15

Yep. It’s called “Marketing” :slight_smile:

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#16

There is another odd side to hearing aid marketing. A clinical group once produced an ad showing an animal that looked like a huge shrimp. It was curled on top and behind the ear of a beautiful woman shown in profile. The ad said hearing aids can be ugly. They they went on to advertise the Lyric “invisible” model.

What a shock, to see marketing that alienates part of the customer base! I suspect the idea was to recruit new customers who believe the stereotypes and suddenly learn they don’t have to appear (insert favorite stereotype: ugly, stupid, deaf, old, etc.) like me with my BTE HAs, tubing and earmolds.

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#17

Talking about missing out on customers, … I’m surprised how many ads still don’t have captions! This is major missed marketing. I think I read somewhere that it increases ad uptake by 10% or so to have captions, and not only for HOH people. How many times in your life have you seen a TV with the sound off (bars, offices, transportation hubs, etc)? Simple captions on those screens would help sell whatever they are selling.

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#18

I don’t have a problem with the smiley faces or even the price. It is constantly frustrating, however, that none of the major manufacturers provide much useful technical information, at least not in a way that is easily accessible. I’m tired of seeing singing birds and happy grandpas listening the the kids. Every other high quality high tech device (whether it’s a stereo set of an automobile) provides lots of intelligent technical information. --Steve

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#19

I have to say that my switch from cheap as chips NHS Siemen’s to top range Phonak was one of anti-climax apart from the fact I was not paying for them. The immediate thought was that they were ‘ordinary’. Later I realised the effect was ordinary as in ordinary good hearing.
I only started to realise the bigger difference once I got a smartphone and a Phonak app. Now I use my mobile phone in preference to my landline. Then I started to use the app to adjust the audio particularly with the TV.
Smile, yes, immediate smile, no.

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#20

Yea, its some what amazing how you can pay $2000 plus for a hearing aid, but just get a little “show and tell operating handout”, that’s fits in your hand. This is how we insert the battery and this is how we take it out. This is why you will never see a “hearing aid book for dummies” since the manufacturer’s shared information is sooooo limited.