After a telehealth company's Super Bowl commercial sparked nationwide debate about pharmaceutical safety and advertising, one DSO executive is reflecting on what the controversy means for patient care in dentistry.
Hims & Hers aired its "Sick of the System" commercial during the Super Bowl LIX Feb. 9. The ad criticized the current healthcare industry while promoting the company's weight loss drugs as more accessible and affordable than other brands. The ad sparked backlash from other companies and organizations, who warned against the advertisement and use of medications not approved by the FDA. Many viewers also criticized the ad, with some calling it "hypocritical."
Ash ElDifrawi, the chief commercial and brand officer for The Aspen Group, recently spoke with Becker's to discuss the commercial, along with the importance of meeting patient expectations while maintaining patient expectations.
Editor's note: These responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: The Aspen Group has begun to focus more on meeting new patient expectations. How have patient expectations evolved over the years?
Ash ElDifrawi: Look, patients today have all the power – and they should. They'll call you out on social media if you're not being straight with them. But they'll also champion brands that do right by them – ones that make care accessible while still taking their health seriously. That's the sweet spot we're all aiming for.
Looking at this year’s Super Bowl spots, I think the brand that took the boldest move was Hims & Hers. They're pushing boundaries and sparking debate. And that's actually a good thing, because it shows just how much healthcare has changed in the last few years. Think about where we were just a couple of years ago: nobody wanted to rock the boat. But patients are ready for these conversations now. They want to talk openly about weight management, about costs, about what actually works. And if you're too scared to have those real conversations, you might as well be invisible. Of course, being bold doesn't ever mean being reckless. It means having the guts to do both: make care more accessible and keep it safe and legit.
Q: Do you see a lot of DSOs or other dental companies focused enough on what the consumer wants, and is that a deal breaker for their success?
AE: Everybody says it, right? And I think they all mean it, but there are a couple of problems because everything really comes down to your ability to operationalize that. It's really hard when you're a DSO that doesn't have a brand to hold people accountable to it. So, you're buying up back ends of services, but the face of the brand is really the stock in control. So, how do I make a promise to patients that's going to be consistent across every single experience, across any of my brands, when I can't control it? That's one problem. Some of the ones that are branded, there is a desire to do that, but I actually think the challenge is to keep the clinical integrity right. For example, there's this big push that's out there with some companies about "teeth in a day." That sounds great for some consumers. It maybe gets them a little bit over the hump because they're like, "Well, it sounds a little too good to be true, but at least I can be done in 24 hours." Guess what we're starting to see now? We're starting to see all these problems start to emerge from people who've had these procedures done, but there were sacrifices in clinical integrity.
We actually started to see a lot of these people come to us who were like, "I got teeth in a day, and now I'm starting to see these issues." Sometimes it's really hard if you don't have it built into your DNA or culture or your mission as a company, that when you try to deliver on these things, there are always, unfortunately, trade-offs to be made. What I'm seeing is it's really hard for companies at scale to be able to make all these commitments and investments that maintain the quality of care, and that's the trade-off ... It's really hard to do both. That's the biggest challenge I see for DSOs.