CVS candy, cookie ads sent to Bay Area diabetic a ‘brand safety fail’

A Bay Area woman with diabetes received a text from CVS about her medication being ready, followed by ads for Oreos and Hershey's Kisses, prompting criticism from marketing experts who called it a brand safety fail. The incident highlights the risks of automated ad placements that can appear insensitive to recipients' health conditions.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...The text from CVS informed the Vallejo resident that her diabetes medication was ready for pickup – a routine communication. Then she looked at the bottom of the text and saw the message: “Do all your shopping today at one discount price,” followed by ads for Oreos and Hershey’s Kisses. “I was upset,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous due to her medical condition. People with diabetes are generally advised to limit foods high in added sugars and refined carbohydrates such as cookies, because these foods can cause rapid increases in blood glucose, according to the Centers for Disease Control https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/healthy-eating/choosing-healthy-carbs.html? . The woman contacted CVS to complain, but according to her, she didn’t get anywhere. CVS Health is the nation’s largest pharmacy chain with more than 9,000 locations https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/64803/000006480326000010/cvs-20251231.htm? . “This is a mistake for sure,” said Subodh Bhat, a professor of marketing at San Francisco State University. “CVS should have been more careful what kind of ads went to the customer. “Secondly, the external companies should have vetted their ads because they look incongruous going to that customer,” Bhat said. The placement violates an advertising principle known as “brand safety,” the professor said. “Brand safety is a big topic these days. There have been controversies. This particularly happens with online advertising,” Bhat said. The widely taught classic example of a brand safety fail is the 2017 YouTube advertiser crisis, often called the “Adpocalypse.” Hundreds of companies, including Johnson & Johnson and AT&T, pulled their ads https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/business/atampt-and-johnson-amp-johnson-pull-ads-from-youtube-amid-hate-speech-concerns.html from YouTube after finding the ads running next to hate speech and violent extremist content. The platform revised its policies in response. Returning to the present, the professor said that ad placement often occurs through third parties, and ads run on thousands of sites. “They try to be very careful, but you can’t control everything,” said Bhat. While the CVS text constitutes a brand safety fail, it’s nothing major, he said. Bhat emphasized that American consumers are sophisticated consumers of advertising content and generally take such juxtapositions with a grain of salt or, perhaps in this case, sugar . “This kind of thing happens all the time,” he said. “Lots of sports organizations have ads or sponsorships from the big so-called unhealthy companies like Pepsi and Hershey’s and so on.” As just one example, Coca-Cola sponsors the FIFA World Cup, among other events. Bhat also noted that when a customer goes to CVS for a prescription in person, they have to walk past all the cookies, candies, and other processed foods to reach the pharmacy. A Bay Area marketing professional shared additional insights into the placement. “Good marketing makes customers feel more appreciated, more understood, more connected to the brand,” said David Mitroff, founder and business growth strategist of Piedmont Avenue Consulting https://piedmontave.com/our-company/ , an Oakland-based marketing and consulting firm. “Customers base their relationship with a brand on trust, and this is a poor match, and her trust in the company is going to go down. And the goal of personalization is to build a stronger relationship, but sending this text did the opposite,” Mitroff said. When a customer gets a hardcopy receipt at the grocery store, “on the back of the receipt are ads for real estate agents, pizza, dentists. The store gets the paper for free from those companies,” the consultant said. If the resident had received a cookie ad on a hardcopy receipt, it would have been different, he said. It’s obvious that such a receipt is given to everyone. But texts are sent to a person’s phone number. “The text comes to you personally. That’s where context masters. When someone’s sending me a text, they should know more about me, and they should take advantage of that,” Mitroff said. A good example of this kind of marketing would be if a customer shopped on a website often and the company generated ads based on their choices. “Nordstrom has sent me stuff like that. ‘Just so you know, these shoes are on sale this month. There are only five more pairs left, and one is in your size,’” he said. The text in question doesn’t appear to be a reflection of CVS policy. The company is on record making decisions motivated by health and wellness despite the impact on its bottom line. The company stopped selling cigarettes and tobacco products https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cvs-caremark-to-stop-selling-tobacco-at-all-cvspharmacy-locations-243662651.html in 2014. At the time, CVS estimated it would lose approximately $2 billion in revenues on an annual basis from tobacco shoppers due to the decision. Messages sent to CVS spokespeople requesting comment did not receive a response.