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Victorian Hearing apologises for ‘Hearing aids can be ugly’ campaign following online backlash

Victoria HearingVictorian Hearing has apologised for an ad which described hearing aids as “ugly” along with an image in which the hearing device was replaced with a prawn, after being accused of deaf shaming.

The campaign, which was taken offline over the weekend, aimed to address the issue of 20 per cent of Australians refusing to seek help for failing hearing because they are embarrassed, the company said in the apology on its Facebook page.

“Victorian Hearing sincerely apologizes if our current invisible hearing solution add was hurtful, it was certainly not our intention. However, we are fighting a war with a large population of Australians (1 in 5) who refuse to seek hearing amplification because they are embarrassed.”

People took to the page’s Facebook page to express their anger at ad, with one poster saying: “I don’t really love my hearing aids, but I accept that with the severity of my hearing loss, I’m stuck with them. To see them referred to as ugly though — that’s just really unhelpful.”

Victorian Hearing has now removed images of the ad, which is understood to have run on outdoor media, from its Facebook page.

However the company appeared to stand by the ad, saying since the release of the campaign they had been able to “help many who would have never stepped foot inside an audiology clinic as they were not aware of all options available”.

It said it would be “mindful of imagery and messages sent in future campaigns”.

Miranda Ward

Victorian hearing complaints

Victorian hearing complaints

 

VICTORIA HEARING

The apology in full:

“Victorian Hearing sincerely apologizes if our current invisible hearing solution add was hurtful, it was certainly not our intention. However, we are fighting a war with a large population of Australians (1 in 5) who refuse to seek hearing amplification because they are embarrassed. As well as poor communication and stress on relationships, hearing loss is also related to general health issues such as fatigue, risk of falls, depression etc. Research has shown the more consistently the auditory nerve is stimulated the better the sound quality and clarity is received. So, the more hearing impaired people that wear hearing aids regularly the better.

“Victorian Hearing has, for many years, advertised BTE and traditional hearing aids without any success in helping this large group of people, so we tried something out of the box. Our goal and intention is to help those with hearing loss who are not seeking help due to the stigma. Since we released this add (which finished this weekend) , we have been able to help many who would have never stepped foot inside an audiology clinic as they were not aware of all options available.

“With this being said, we will be mindful of imagery and messages sent in future campaigns.

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