I stumbled across a news release purporting to be from the Widex people in the U.K. promoting a gold- and diamond-encrusted hearing aid with remote controller priced at 25,000 UK pounds ($50,144 U.S. dollars). Advertising itself as the “blingi-est” hearing aid in the world, it is a version of the new Widex “M” family of hearing aids.
Widex Diamond-Encrusted Hearing AidThe M family apparently is Widex’s attempt to get hip and with it in the same manner Phonak has with its Audeo family and Oticon has with its Delta hearing aids. Featuring attractive colors and different styles, including open-fit, thin-tube behind-the-ear models which are particularly appealing to aging baby boomers, the M family leverages Widex’s excellent Inteo digital signal processing technologies that reduce feedback, enable better hearing in noise, and provide automatic adjustment to different acousting environments. Phonak and Oticon have done a lot of aggressive marketing, sometimes going over the top in their efforts to appeal to oldish hipsters, but I’ve got to say the bling-bling gold-and-diamond Widex UK promotion takes the cake and wins my prize for nuttiest hearing aid promotion yet.
