Or, The Lovely Bones (health care version).
 
I have an acquaintance whose bone density scan told her she is at high risk for osteoporosis. No surprise: the condition runs in her family. For several years, she has been paying a luxury-segment department store counter $300 every two months for her skin creme, which promises that she will be ageless as she ages into her fifties, sixties, and beyond.
 
But she has not yet filled her prescription for an osteoporosis-preventing drug.
 
She doesn’t have prescription drug coverage. She thinks the drug is too high-priced. It’s about $300 for three months of therapy.
 
A new report from IRI finds that “health and wellness are driving beauty trends.”
 
How about the threat of broken bones motivating some personal heatlh spending? Why aren’t broken bones ‘ugly’ in the eye of a very literate, socially-conscious health care consumer?
 
IRI notes that Burt’s Bees, which was just acquired by Clorox, is a stellar example of health driving the future of the beauty industry.
 
IRI found that skincare products dominate the beauty category, with $15.1 billion in sales. Anti-aging products are the big growth item in a cooling cosmetic climate. And men’s ‘grooming’ products are up, too.
 
Health Populi’s Hot Points: The pharma industry and its lobby group, PhRMA, are missing the boat when it comes to marketing health to consumers. I adore Sally Field, the celebrity endorser of Boniva, for example (The Flying Nun has indelibly touched my TV aesthetic. I like her, I really like her). But I’m not sure the message about beauty and health is well-communicated in that campaign. Instead, it could be more effective (from a sales standpoint) for a 30- or 40-something woman to see a story about bones and beauty — told with humor but hitting home the message that cosmetics companies already ‘get.’ Health is a beautiful thing, after all.