TV Copper Cops To Using Tommie Copper For Pain Relief

Author: Les Luchter Source: Marketing Daily

Ever wonder how actor Christopher Meloni gets through all those action scenes playing a copper on “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order: Organized Crime” and other projects?

Would you believe he uses Tommie Copper, the pain management brand?

“There’s too many things to do in life to let pain get in the way. That’s why I use Tommie Copper,” Meloni says in a :60 spot created in-house. “At work, when the action gets intense on set, Tommie Copper has my back…and my shoulders, my knees and my ankles too.”

The ad features Meloni using several of Tommie Cooper’s pain-relief products, including infrared and red light therapy devices introduced earlier this year. An upcoming:30 spot will focus more on those new products, Josh Krauss, the company’s vice president, marketing and ecommerce, told Marketing Daily.

The campaign includes the :60 and :30 spots running on TV, plus :15 pre-roll videos on YouTube, video and still ads on social media, and emails to the brand’s customer database.  Eicoff is the media agency.

Twelve-year-old Tommie Copper offers a product line that includes compression wear, sleeves, topical analgesics, mattresses, and pain-relief devices.

The infrared and red light therapy products mark the company’s entry into the FDA Class II medical device category. Powered by wireless rechargeable batteries, the LED products include five devices priced under $200: an all-purpose “flex” pad, and products for the neck, shoulder, back and joints.

“Typically reserved for professionals and clinics with big technology budgets, these new designs are available to our customers to use in the comfort of their homes,” Tommie Copper president Sol Jacobs said in introducing the line in February.

The company’s original line of copper-infused compression wear did inspire some controversy in the brand’s early days. In 2015, Tommie Copper agreed to pay $1.35 million to settle claims by the Federal Trade Commission that it had falsely advertised its products as relieving severe and chronic pain and inflammation caused by arthritis and other diseases such as multiple sclerosis,and fibromyalgia -- "pain relief comparable to, or better than, drugs or surgery.”

The company’s ads, as shown in the two links above, no longer make such specific claims.