These Days, Let No Good Deed Go Unpublicized

With the Clinton Administration less than bashful about depicting healthcare companies as profiteers, a few of its targets will use ads to argue back – as Merck did earlier this month in an ad rebutting the president’s attack on pharmaceutical makers. Other players will shun confrontation and publicize their good deeds. They could do worse than study the example of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Utah. In this spot (created before the healthcare debate got nasty), Blue Cross solicits contributions for the Caring Program for Children, which subsidizes health insurance for kids whose parents can’t afford it.