Too many loud concerts have left too many boomers, about one in six, with premature hearing loss.
Salivating at the potential windfall market of aging boomers, hearing aid manufacturers are fighting the stigma of ugly hearing aids with new designs, sexy marketing, even new names.
Audéo’s manufacturer, Phonak, does not call it a hearing aid. In a nod to PDAs like BlackBerrys, it calls Audéo a PCA (Personal Communication Assistant). Shaped like a moth’s wing and smaller than a guitar pick, it perches behind the ear and comes in 15 color combinations, like Pure Passion or Green With Envy.
Ms. Arra could have also considered the Bernafon SwissEar hearing aid, red with the white cross insignia of the Swiss flag. Or a Delta by Oticon in Shy Violet. “It was like shopping for sunglasses,” said Ms. Arra, who bought two Audéos in Crème Brûlée (brownish blond) to match her hair. The device has a thin tube coiling toward the ear canal.
The Day the Music Died