Bad Blood
John Carreyrou
Contributed by Andrea Barraza
Chapter 13
Summary

In order to create their website and to elevate her brand, Elizabeth Holmes hired TBWA/Chiat/Day advertising agency to help her. There, she met Patrick Stan, Carisa, and Lorraine, all working for the agency. They soon started creating what Elizabeth asked but they started questioning the statements she wanted to appear on the Theranos website because they sounded as they were fake. Since that moment, they were no longer sure that Theranos even created any device. Some of them even called their relatives who were working in the medical field and all of them confirmed that it doesn't sound real because all those techniques are too sophisticated and Elizabeth's presentation lacks the essential information. Meanwhile, Elizabeth continued lying by stating that the Army is sponsoring the devices and that they are FDA approved company. The pictures the advertising agency did were used by Elizabeth during her conference speech to prove the importance of her invention. Once the website was up the lawyer of the company called because the text used had many misinterpretations and could be used by other companies to take Theranos down. Elizabeth understood the impact this problem can have on the company and because of that she requested the time to change everything in the last minute. The edits done were far from the initial text and further proved that something is going on in that company.

Analysis

The Theranos scam goes even further when they hire an advertising firm to work on their image. The role of all of this is to create a powerful visual impact that would gain the trust of the investors even easier. The hired team is suspicious because as they stated Elizabeth and Sunny failed to deliver the requested information such as the approval of the FDA, the test results of the device and the confirmation that the invention works from the Hopkins Hospital. Elizabeth is seen as an authentic liar and she claims she has all those requested information but managed to find a way to avoid delivering them. Suspicions regarding Theranos intentions rise even more yet still no one can confirm them.

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