Having done a shit-ton of branding and advertising work in healthcare I am very sensitive to the good, the bad and the ugly.  Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a cancer care titan, has always done good advertising, supported by great positioning.  

(Disclaimer: There is a difference between advertising and positioning. Not all ads are brand positioning executions. But the good ones are.)  

Today, I read a print ad by Memorial Sloan Kettering with the tagline “This Is What We Do.” The ad focused on treating a husband and wife, both with thyroid cancer, at the same time. Not exactly breakthrough stuff. “This is What We Do” was the tagline.

The two most powerful taglines for MSKCC were “The Best Cancer Care Anywhere” and “Where You Are Treated First Matters.”  Great brand positioning. Today’s effort, not so much.

If your advertising does not further your brand strategy you are wasting your money. You’re, in fact, diluting your brand. “This Is What We Do” might be a poetic, summary line for an add story but it does not support the amazing work MSKCC does day in and day out.

This is a case where brand strategy and advertising collide. Junior copywriters and junior brand managers are sullying a great business and some amazing brands.

Peace.