Bayer Sells Dog Tags for Diabetics
Bayer Diabetes Care is selling dog tags for youngsters with Type 1 diabetes. The tags are being sold as a trendy consciousness-raising item (even though the original meaning of “dog tag” was an ID necklace worn so that dead soldiers’ corpses could be identified, and life expectancy for type 1 diabetics is slightly reduced.)
The tags cost $5 and feature a “medical alert” function. Half the purchase price goes to The Jonas Brothers’ Change for the Children Foundation, which sponsors diabetes care and research.
The tags are modelled after a dog tag worn by Nick Jonas, the singer with type 1 diabetes who has leant his name to Bayer for awareness-raising purposes. Jonas says on his site:
I designed this Dog Tag for anyone who wants to show their support for diabetes. If you are a person with diabetes we will make yours with a medical alert; that’s the one I wear. For people who know or love someone who has diabetes and want to join the cause we will send you one without the medical alert. We’re launching them with the kickoff of National Diabetes Month in November.
Both dog tags feature a lyric from “A Little Bit Longer,” the song Jonas wrote about his diabetes. You can find more background on the promo here. BNET readers first encountered the Jonas-Bayer alliance here, back in August.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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