commercials, to make video ads the company ran on TV stations in the
Phoenix area and on its website and YouTube channel. One of the
spots was a close-up of Elizabeth in her customary black turtleneck
staring into the camera and talking about what she called people’s
“basic human right” to access their own health information through
blood tests. Her eyes looked so big and she spoke so slowly and
deliberately that the video had a hypnotic quality to it.
Another spot featured patients complaining about how much they
hated big needles and then acting pleased at the painlessness of the
Theranos experience as they got their fingers pricked. Patrick thought
it was powerful and arranged for it to run during shows with high
female viewership, like the ABC drama Scandal, because research had
shown that mothers were households’ medical decision makers. But
the ad had to be pulled a couple of weeks after it started airing because
a local doctor complained that some of his patients had gone to
Walgreens stores expecting a finger-stick draw only to be told their
tests required a needle after all. Patrick was disappointed but didn’t
raise a fuss about it because he knew this was a sensitive subject.
Several months earlier, he had asked Sunny what proportion of
Theranos tests were performed with finger-stick draws versus regular
venous ones. Sunny had refused to give him a straight answer and had
abruptly changed the subject.