Taken during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.:
If the health care that they’re offering is free, why do they need to advertise to give it away?
[Related: a DC pharmacy advertises three possible ways to turn tax dollars into pills…
]
Advertising to give away free health care
Here is a better alternative.
Spend a day in Tijuana, gorge on real tacos. Cross back to San Diego. Burn your ID and self-identify as an undocumented asylum seeker. Make sure to mention that you have been raped in your sleep by Donald Trump, Jr. (You can be provided with an authentic Spanish pronunciation tape for just $99999999999, a gringo idiot special!) Get a free healthcare plan sponsored by the CA tax-payers; and don’t forget your dental plan!
Never state that you are an American, or you won’t get the same benefits: self-identify judiciously and learn to say Down with Trump in a fluent Spanish.
You’re right. They shouldn’t have to advertise but the VA has a perception and reality problem among veterans who really don’t like the VA and who think their services suck. The ads are a small part of the outreach effort to change that opinion. The VA has a marketing team and it’s a small percentage of their budget. It’s very important that the VA continues to keep its staffing intact and grow them, and the perception among veterans I know is that their services are awful. I really have never heard anything but complaints about the VA from actual veterans, but ads. work for a lot of people, particularly people in Washington.
Marketing is so important when it comes to maintaining high levels of dedicated staff. Who doesn’t smoke it now?
As my late, elderly father used to say, “The VA sucks.”
That’s why.