Oh Baby, It’s Twins!

One baby is crying, another looks content, but each has a universal bar code on his head.
The crybaby is featured in a print ad for White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital Center that first appeared in February. The code illustrates how some healthcare providers–not the hospital, of course–treat patients like numbers. The tagline: “Our bottom line is you.”
On the other child the code makes a point about the high cost of raising kids, the subject of a feature in the March 30 edition of U.S. News & World Report. (Both the ad and magazine are shown here.)
New York-based Emmerling Post Advertising principal Peter Post is more amused than upset by the coincidence. After all, his agency’s ad only appeared in local newspapers and the Westchester section of The New York Times.
“No harm, no foul,” said Post. Nevertheless, he added: “If it was another ad, we’d feel differently.” –Andrew McMains