Health
Howie Cohen, Whose Alka-Seltzer Ads Spawned Catchphrases, Dies at 81
Howie Cohen, an advertising copywriter, often said he was congenitally familiar with indigestion. So perhaps it was only natural that in the 1970s, he, along with an ad agency colleague, would conjure up a catchy slogan that would not only sell more Alka-Seltzer but also become an American pop culture punchline: “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”
That bedside lament, spoken by the comedian and dialectician Milt Moss — he actually said that thing on camera — vaulted from a 30-second TV commercial to sweatshirts, supermarket windows and even church marquees.
It proved even more popular than “Try it, you’ll like it,” the first catchphrase for Alka-Seltzer that Mr. Cohen coined with his business partner, Bob Pasqualina, an art director at the Manhattan agency Wells Rich Greene.
Mr. Cohen, who helped popularize products and companies like Petco (“Where the pets go”) and the fast-food chain Jack in the Box (exploding its clown mascot in a TV commercial in announcing a new, more sophisticated menu), died on March 2 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81.
His death, which wasn’t widely reported at the time, was announced on Facebook by his brother, Jerry, who said the cause was cancer.
Alka-Seltzer’s creative advertising had already found success in the 1950s and ’60s. It had introduced its mascot Speedy and its “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” jingle. It had brought “tummies” to television commercials. And it had played on cultural stereotypes (“that’s a spicy meatball”), offending some viewers. But by the early 1970s, sales were lagging.
Mr. Cohen and Mr. Pasqualina, who had recently joined Wells Rich Greene, were tasked with creating an ad campaign that would run until the agency could come up with a long-term strategy to make Alka-Seltzer a household name again.
Mr. Cohen recalled in a 2019 memoir that those two popular ads the partners came up with, both in 1972, were inspired by his upbringing in the Pelham Parkway neighborhood of the East Bronx.
The “try it” tag line had its roots, he wrote, in his mother’s dinnertime plea that he eat the liver and onions that regularly congealed untouched on his plate.
“We only had 30 seconds, so we couldn’t get too complicated,” Mr. Cohen told The New York Times in 1972. “One of us came up with ‘Try it, you’ll like it.’ We said it over and over again, because we couldn’t think of another line, and the repetition became the thing.”
In the ad, Jack Aaron, a stage actor who had appeared in commercials, plays a man sitting in a restaurant recounting a meal he once had — an indigestible one, it turned out — at the encouragement of a waiter, who kept telling him, “Try it, you’ll like it.”
“I used to work part time as a waiter,” Mr. Aaron told The Times in 1972. “Now I eat at Sardi’s, and the waiters all say, ‘Try it, you’ll like it.’”
If “try it” was inspired by Mr. Cohen’s abstinence, the “whole thing” line resulted from his overindulgence. He, Mr. Pasqualina and a production crew were in London gorging on an Italian dinner hosted by the director Milos Forman, who had filmed a commercial that the two admen had created for Diet Rite Cola.
“I’m a nice Jewish kid from the Bronx, so I ate everything until I couldn’t fit one more thing in my body,” Mr. Cohen would often recall. “I leaned back in my chair and said, ‘I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.’ And my wife said, ‘There’s your next Alka-Seltzer commercial.’”
In the commercial, a woman, trying to fall back to sleep, urges her pajama-clad husband, who is sitting groaning on the edge of their bed, to take two Alka-Seltzer tablets to settle his stomach after overindulging. He repeats the “whole thing” line over and over.
Both ads are enshrined in the advertising industry’s Clio Awards Hall of Fame.
A marketing survey found that about 85 percent of Americans could identify Alka-Seltzer through the “whole thing” slogan, which would later be immortalized in the game Trivial Pursuit and on the TV animated series “The Simpsons.”
“They say the best lines come from the heart,” Mr. Cohen wrote in his book, “I Can’t Believe I Lived the Whole Thing: A Memoir From the Golden Age of Advertising.” “‘I can’t believe I ate the whole thing’ came from my stomach.’”
Mary Wells Lawrence, one of the founders of Wells Rich Greene and Mr. Cohen’s mentor, described Mr. Cohen and Mr. Pasqualina as “two of the most talented people we ever had.”
Ms. Wells Lawrence, who died in May, wrote in her own memoir that earlier Alka-Seltzer ads had grabbed attention and entertained, but that “they were not as believable, as earnestly sincere and therefore not as persuasive as Howie and Bob’s sweet, funny commercials — especially ‘I ate the whole thing.’”
Howard Stephen Cohen was born on Sept. 25, 1942, in the Bronx to Samuel and Jeannette Cohen. The elder Mr. Cohen owned a steel fabrication company that he had inherited from his father.
Howie Cohen wrote in his memoir that he grew up in a one-bedroom apartment adjacent to an elevated train. When he was 13, he was given a tape recorder as a bar mitzvah gift and began producing commercials. After graduating from New Rochelle High School in Westchester County, he attended the University of Miami and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from New York University.
Destined to inherit his father’s company but eager not to, he applied to ad agencies and in 1965 landed a job as a copy trainee on the Volkswagen account at Doyle Dane Bernbach.
He joined Wells Rich Greene in 1967; left to start his own firm with Mr. Pasqualina; returned to Wells Rich Greene as a creative director; became the president of its Los Angeles office; and founded another agency with the adman Mark Johnson, which he sold in 1997 to the Phelps Group. He remained as partner and chief creative officer until he retired in 2017. He also wrote a blog called Mad Mensch.
In addition to his brother, his survivors include his wife, Carol (Trifari) Cohen, whom he married in 1972; two children, Jonathan and Johanna; a stepdaughter, Cristina; and a granddaughter.
In 2012, Mr. Cohen was asked by Google to reimagine the “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” ad for a 21st-century digital version.
“I look at the internet tools and technologies that we have and see exciting new ways to express an idea,” he told The Los Angeles Times. “But emotions will always trump algorithms. Advertising is about connecting in a human way.”
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
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A study from Harvard Medical School indicates natural selection has favored the red hair gene, resulting in a potential increase in the number of redheaded people as humanity continues to evolve.
By analyzing nearly 16,000 ancient genomes spanning 10,000 years, researchers identified a list of traits that nature is actively pushing forward. Among the most prominent were the genetic variants for red hair.
“Perhaps having red hair was beneficial 4,000 years ago, or perhaps it came along for the ride with a more important trait,” the authors noted.
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The study, published in the journal Nature, relied on a large database of ancient DNA from West Eurasia. Using new computing methods, the team was able to filter out random fluctuations in DNA to identify what it called “directional selection.”
Directional selection happens when a particular version of a gene gives an organism a strong survival or reproductive advantage, causing it to become more common in a population faster than it would by chance, according to experts.
Directional selection is when a specific gene provides such significant benefits that it rises in frequency across a population much faster than random chance. (iStock)
Prior to this study, scientists only knew of about 21 such instances in human history, one of which was lactose tolerance. This new research uncovered hundreds more.
“With these new techniques and a large amount of ancient genomic data, we can now watch how selection shaped biology in real time,” Ali Akbari, first author of the study and senior staff scientist in the lab of Harvard geneticist David Reich, said in a press release.
COMMON EATING HABIT MAY TRIGGER PREMATURE IMMUNE SYSTEM AGING, STUDY FINDS
The data showed that genetic markers for red hair are among 479 gene variants that have been strongly favored over the past 10,000 years. One likely explanation, the researchers said, is a major shift in human history: the transition to farming.
Scientists have long pointed to vitamin D synthesis as a likely driver for the rise of traits like fair skin and light hair. (iStock)
As humans moved away from hunting and gathering and settled into agricultural societies, their environment and behavior changed radically, triggering an evolutionary “acceleration.”
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While the Harvard study provides the first definitive statistical proof that red hair was actively selected during the rise of farming, the researchers noted that the exact prehistoric benefit still requires more study.
However, scientists have long pointed to vitamin D synthesis as a likely driver for the rise of these light-pigmented traits in northern climates.
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While redheads remain a minority of the global population today, the Harvard study’s analysis suggests that they may not be an evolutionary accident.
While redheads remain a minority of the global population today, the Harvard study’s analysis suggests they may not be an evolutionary accident. (iStock)
Instead, the red hair trait was “boosted” by natural selection as humans adapted to the challenges of a modern world, according to the researchers.
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The researchers urged caution in how these findings are interpreted.
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“What a variant is associated with now is not necessarily why an allele propagated,” the authors noted.
Dr. Megan Jack, a neurosurgeon in Cleveland, often works 60 or 70 hours a week. And she’s completely unavailable when she’s in the operating room. That makes it tough to be a caregiver for her 76-year-old mother, who lives in a separate unit on Dr. Jack’s property, 30 minutes away from the hospital.
To help care for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Jack uses an array of high-tech tools, some of which didn’t exist just a few years ago. She manages her mother’s medications with a smart pill box. She changes her television channels with an app, sends appointment reminders through a digital message board — and, with her mother’s blessing, uses cameras for communication and monitoring.
“It’s been invaluable that I can both make sure she’s safe and make sure everything is going well,” Dr. Jack said, “but also give her the independence and the freedom that she still deserves.”
America is aging rapidly. Roughly 11,000 people are turning 65 each day in the United States. And many of them — 75 percent of people over 50, according to AARP’s most recent survey, from 2024 — hope to spend their remaining years in the comfort of their homes, rather than in assisted-living or other care facilities.
One thing that could help fulfill those wishes is the budding field of “age tech,” which encompasses tools that support older adults. Industry experts say that age tech is making homes safer for older adults and is easing the minds of their caregivers, especially those who live far away or work outside the home.
Dr. Jack said that age tech had “really allowed me to integrate caregiving into my life, as opposed to caregiving taking over my life.”
The age tech boom
If older adults don’t have loved ones who are both close by and able to help, they might believe they don’t have a ton of options. They can live independently, or, if they can afford it and qualify medically, they can move to an assisted-living facility or a nursing home, without a lot of choices in between. In-home help can be expensive without Medicaid and can also be difficult to find, given the serious shortage of home care workers.
Age tech can help bridge some important gaps, said Emily Nabors, the associate director of innovation at the National Council on Aging, a nonprofit advocacy group. Already, AARP reports that 25 percent of caregivers are remotely monitoring their loved ones with apps, videos or wearables, nearly double the percentage from five years ago.
“We used to say homes are the health care settings of the future, but they really are health care settings now,” Ms. Nabors said. “Aging in place is very realistic.”
More than 700 companies are in AARP’s AgeTech Collaborative, a group that connects businesses, nonprofits and funders to help get new technologies off the ground. Altogether, the collaborative’s start-ups have raised nearly $1 billion in the past four years.
The products include smart walkers, glasses with lenses that provide real-time captions of conversations for those with hearing issues, and a concierge service that connects older people to drivers and deliveries, even if they don’t have a smartphone.
Ms. Nabors does foresee some affordability and access barriers to age tech, including the lack of high-speed internet in rural areas, but she said one vital resource would be local aging agencies, which can offer advice and, sometimes, free support.
Janet Marasa leaned on the agency near her home in Rockland County, N.Y., to get a free robotic pet for her mother, Carol DeMaio, 80, who has dementia. The pets, manufactured by a company called Joy for All, aim to offer emotional support without the upkeep.
Ms. DeMaio named the robotic dog Sabrina, after a golden retriever who died. The new Sabrina stays at the foot of her bed at night. As soon as Ms. DeMaio stirs awake, the dog reacts. “She said it gives her a reason to get up in the morning,” Ms. Marasa said.
The dog has been a boon to her, too. “It provides comfort and interaction that I can’t provide every second,” said Ms. Marasa, who lives with her mother but works full time for the county government. “It gives her something that she can feel like is totally her own.”
In Broward County, Fla., where the population of residents over 85 is expected to nearly triple over the next few decades, the local agency on aging has used state and federal money and private grants to provide technologies to nearly 4,000 of the county’s seniors at no cost.
Its offerings include a company that uses radar to sense falls and a program that allows seniors to make video calls through their televisions.
“The possibilities are endless,” Charlotte Mather-Taylor, the agency’s chief executive, said. “It’s pretty great to see all the new technology coming out so quickly, and I think that can only benefit our older population and also our caregivers.”
Here comes A.I.
Even technologies not specifically marketed as age tech can help older adults maintain their independence, said Laurie Orlov, founder of the blog Aging and Health Technology Watch. She pointed to video-calling and telehealth platforms; remotely controlled thermostats and lights; and smart speakers, doorbells and watches.
“All technology can be customized to help older adults stay longer in their homes and help their family members feel good about it, or at least tolerate it,” Ms. Orlov said.
That will only become more true with the continued proliferation of artificial intelligence, Ms. Orlov added. Some older adults are already using conversational A.I. to get answers about things like the weather or their medications. (Relying too heavily on A.I. can, however, have negative consequences because chatbots often give flawed medical advice and can lead patients astray.) A.I. can also assist in pattern detection: alerting caregivers to signals that might indicate declines in someone’s cognition or mental health, such as changing their speech pattern or leaving the house less frequently.
One A.I.-powered age tech tool is ElliQ, a tabletop companion robot that looks like a sleek silver desk lamp with a screen. About a year and a half ago, Camille Wolsonovich got one for free, thanks to a local nonprofit, for her 90-year-old father, Bill Castellano. He lives alone in a senior community.
Ms. Wolsonovich, who runs a consulting business, relies on ElliQ to lead her father in exercises and remind him to take his pills and drink water. The robot also asks her father about his sleep and mood via automated check-ins.
“Everything’s just another layer that gives us more confidence, from a caregiving standpoint, that he’s good,” Ms. Wolsonovich said. “I don’t have to necessarily track everything all the time and be overbearing.”
As for Mr. Castellano? He plays trivia digitally and converses daily with ElliQ. The robot, which has a friendly female voice, asks questions, cracks jokes and remembers his likes, dislikes and friends. “She’s great company,” he said. “Everybody around me wants one.”
What about ethical concerns?
Clara Berridge studies the ethics of age tech at the University of Washington.
She has many privacy concerns, namely that most direct-to-consumer products aren’t subject to medical privacy laws, despite being privy to sensitive health information. Though she hopes the federal government will eventually step in to regulate these products, as it has in other countries, the onus remains on the consumer for now.
And even if an age tech product isn’t selling mom’s personal data to the lowest bidder, Dr. Berridge said there’s still the question of whether certain tools are ethical.
“It’s really important for caregivers to recognize that using these new technologies that give them more information about someone can represent greater intrusion into someone’s life,” she said.
What may be well-intentioned monitoring could reveal information that an older adult would rather keep private, such as issues with incontinence, or the comings and goings of a romantic partner.
“It can lead to somebody feeling infantilized,” Dr. Berridge said. “Like there’s not a place to hide within your own home.”
Her research shows that adult children often underestimate how much their parents can understand about technology and how much they want to be involved in tech-related decisions.
She encouraged caregivers to have transparent conversations about privacy implications and to avoid ultimatums or the idea that any decision must be permanent. She said caregivers should put themselves in their parents’ shoes: Is this something they’d want their own children monitoring?
Dr. Berridge is working on an advanced directive for technology, which outlines older people’s wishes for how technology is used in their care. Ultimately, she hopes that questions about age tech will become a standard part of planning for the future.
“If you’re at the start of what, for many people, ends up being a long road of supporting someone potentially through the end of their life,” she said, “seeking to understand each other’s concerns and priorities better is time very well spent.”
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