My Role: Project manager; concept; copywriting/editing; creative direction; budgeting; resource management.

Notes: This ad was one of those concepts that never made it to print. It was unfortunate too, since it was well-received by our partners in Germany and most of our internal staff.

In audiology you create a "fit" when you take an impression of a patient's ear to build a custom hearing aid. The headline "Fit Happens" is an obvious play on a very common although somewhat off-color expression in the English language.

Personally, I feel that this headline has a positive shock value, meaning that it's memorable without being offensive. While the original expression contains a mild vulgarity, the play on words used in the headline is clever enough to be amusing. To me, it's well within the tolerance of most Americans so they won't get offended or turned off by the brand. Also, the original expression is well-enough known that the ad can be appreciated by most people.

We had already obtained all of the approvals where we typically received resistance when it went to our CFO for -- literally -- the very last approval. Unfortunately, he felt that the headline was inappropriate and that was all she wrote. Had this ad been created for a less conservative industry (which is most others), it would have been fine. Coincidently I've recently seen similar headlines used in mainstream America.

While the image of the patient holding a tiny hearing aid in his giant mitt with a very stand-offish expression on his face was a good page-stoper, it lost a lot without the headline. As a result, I opted to go back to the drawing board instead of replacing the headline. Simply doing that would have severely weakened the campaign.

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Fit Happens With LASR Shell Technology.

In the audiology industry you "fit" hearing aids to patients. This involves creating a custom molded hearing instrument to your patient's ear. To audiologists, a customer who is happy with the way their hearing aid fits equates to a successful sale.