Life Alert Emergency Response

{{Short description|American company providing personal emergency response services}} {{use American English|date=December 2022}} {{use mdy dates|date=December 2022}} {{Infobox company | name = Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc. | logo = Life Alert Logo.png | logo_size = 250px | type = Personal emergency response services | foundation = {{start date and age|1987}} | location = Encino, California | founders = Isaac Shepher, Zohar Loshitzer, and Arik Amir | industry = | products = {{Unbulleted list|Micro Voice Pendant System|Help Button|On-the-Go + GPS}} | homepage = {{URL|http://www.lifealert.com}} {{URL|https://www.lifealert.net}} {{URL|https://www.youtube.com/@LifeAlertOfficial}} }}

'''Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc.''', known as '''Life Alert''', is a nationwide<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=BizJournals.com (Phoenix) |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2013/01/18/cypress-creek-tower-in-fort-lauderdale.html |title=Fort Lauderdale building faces foreclosure after Wells Fargo Bolts |author=Brian Bandell |date=January 8, 2013 |access-date=December 15, 2022}}</ref> American personal emergency response systems provider, with headquarters in Encino, California, US, which provides services that help elderly people contact emergency services using medical alert, panic button and on-the-go GPS devices. The company was founded in 1987. The company's system offers a variety of medical alert devices including home-based systems as well as mobile systems with GPS that can be used outside of home. The small wireless help button is worn by the user at all times, including at night or while bathing. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop appeared in commercials for Life Alert starting in 1992, stating that he used one.<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/02/26/c_everett_koop_understanding_aids_former_surgeon_general_became_a_hero_to.html |title=C. Everett Koop's Legacy May Be This Trailblazing, Seven-Page AIDS Pamphlet |date=February 26, 2013 |access-date=April 8, 2026|last=Voorhees|first=Josh|publisher=The Slatest|url-status=live}}</ref> He remained a spokesman for the company until his death in 2013.

== Service == Life Alert offers solutions for in-home protection and on-the-go safety. The devices include a choice of landline or cellular-based main base unit with an emergency call button, a micro voice pendant that has a two-way speaker, a waterproof shower button and a mobile help pendant with GPS. Pressing a button on the pendant contacts a Life Alert call center, and a Life Alert dispatcher then contacts appropriate authorities, family, neighbors and other emergency contacts.

== Lawsuits == In September 1991, nine district attorneys<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/13/business/company-news-suit-targets-life-alert.html |title=Suit Targets Life Alert |newspaper=The New York Times (source: Associated Press) |date=September 13, 1991 |access-date=December 14, 2022}}</ref><ref>The NYTimes-published story named 'Life Emergency Response Inc' "based in Chatsworth" as the vendor and "Life Alert system made by Life Emergency Response" as the product</ref> sued Life Alert for high pressure sales tactics and misleading consumers about how the Life Alert system sends calls to emergency service providers.<ref name= topay>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/565081995 |title=Life Alert to Pay $1.35 Million |newspaper=The Napa Valley Register |location=Napa, California |page=2}}</ref>

The lawsuit said that Life Alert had falsely claimed that its system had special access 911, that local emergency agencies react faster to Life Alert calls compared to other 911 calls, and that Life Alert customers receive preferential treatment from public emergency service providers.<ref name= topay /> District attorneys said that Life Alert's sales representatives had fabricated fictional stories about victims of crime in order to instill fear and anxiety in people.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/311862274 |author=Bob Klose |date=February 1, 1992 |title=Court Prohibits Hard Sell of Service |publisher=The Press Democrat |location=Santa Rosa, California |page=B1}}</ref> Life Alert's sales training manual encouraged sales representatives to say that people were in danger without the system and to "go for the emotional sale, not a logical sale."<ref>{{cite news |author=Reynolds Holding |date=September 13, 1991 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/168320554 |title=$2 Million California Lawsuit Claims Life Alert Pressures, Deceives Elderly |newspaper=Arizona Daily Star |location=Tucson, Arizona |page=A11}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |author=Amy Pyle |author2=Jack Cheevers |date=September 15, 1991 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176440711 |title=Suit Accuses Alarm Firm of Pressuring Elderly}}</ref> Life Alert's sales representatives would initially quote an inflated price and then quoted a lower price in order to make the person think they were receiving a large discount.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/210866759 |title='Fallen and Can't Get Up' Firm Told to Change Pitch |newspaper=The Times Herald (Gannett News Service) |location=Port Huron, Michigan}}</ref> Prosecutors said that Life Alert sold systems for $1,700 to $5,000 that could be rented from local hospitals for $25 per month, and that the systems did little more than relaying calls to 911 operators who then called for emergency service providers.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/240882165 |title=Help! Life Alert Is Falling and May Not Get Up |newspaper=The Sheboygan Press (Associated Press) |location=Sheboygan, Wisconsin |page=19}}</ref>

Aside from the grey-haired ''fallen'' lady, another situation illustrated in ads involved "a man suffers a heart attack, alone in his garden." The ads are not being restricted: it is the "deceptive sales pitches" that are the focus of a court injunction.<ref name=ManAloneGardenLAT1992>{{cite news |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-02-01-me-911-story.html |title=Judge Limits Sales Pitches by Life Alert : Business: Temporary order follows lawsuit claiming that firm uses deceptive practices in selling emergency response system to elderly. |author=Amy Pyle |date=February 1, 1992 |access-date=December 18, 2022}}</ref> In response to the lawsuit, a representative said that Life Alert is a burglar-alarm company<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-12-31-me-14876-story.html |title=Emergency Loans Set a Record in 1994 : Business: The state's lending agency speedily procured more than $21 million from local lenders for 282 businesses damaged in the Northridge earthquake. |quote=Life Alert Emergency Response Co., now of Sherman Oaks, a home security company. |author=Isaac Guzman |date=December 31, 1994 |access-date=December 19, 2022}}</ref> that offers an additional communication device.<ref>{{cite news |author=Lynn Simross |date=November 6, 1991 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/175426107 |title=Safe at Home |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |page=E7}}</ref> The company later claimed in court that, while there may have been some isolated incidents of exaggerations by salespeople, there was no evidence of a pattern of such practice by the company.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/236208116 |title=Life Alert Trial Gets Under Way |author=Argus Petaluma |newspaper=Courier (Associated Press) |location=Petaluma, California |page=13A}}</ref>

* 1992: the Arizona Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Life Alert for consumer fraud.<ref name=arizona>{{cite news |author1=Brent Whitting |date=July 16, 1992 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/123293935 |title=Emergency-call Firm Settles Suit |author2=Jeers Woods |newspaper=Arizona Republic |location=Phoenix, Arizona |page=B1}}</ref> Life Alert agreed to stop soliciting business in Arizona, although it can continue to provide service to existing customers in Arizona.<ref name=arizona />

* 1993: a court judgment required Life Alert to stop making the false claims, and it required Life Alert to pay $700,000 to a victim restitution fund, $350,000 in civil penalties, and $300,000 in prosecution costs.<ref name=topay />

== Trademarks == The phrase "I've fallen and I can't get up" was originally used in 1987 television commercials by Life Alert<ref>https://www.lifealert.net/about.aspx</ref>, and then in 1989<ref>https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-results/74108242</ref> by LifeCall that trademarked it in September 1992 before going out of business in 1993. After LifeCall's trademark expired, a similar phrase, "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!", was registered by Life Alert, in October 2002.<ref>"[http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=76233401 'Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!' trademark info]". ''United States Patent and Trademark Office''. Retrieved September 23, 2009.</ref> The classic commercial featuring this slogan was ranked number one by ''USA Today'' in its 2007 list of the most memorable TV commercials from the past 25 years.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20201129114508/https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/top25-ads.htm Ads we can't get out of our heads]". ''USA Today''. July 22, 2007. Retrieved September 23, 2009.</ref>

=== Slogan's history === {{anchor|I've fallen and I can't get up}} "'''I've fallen, and I can't get up!'''" is a catchphrase of the late 1980s and early 1990s popular culture based upon a line from a United States-based television commercial. This line was spoken by actress Dorothy McHugh in a television commercial for a medical alarm and protection company called LifeCall.

The motivation behind the systems is that subscribers, mostly seniors as well as disabled people, would receive a pendant which, when activated, would allow the user to speak into an audio receiving device and talk directly with a dispatch service, without the need to reach a telephone. The service was designed to appeal particularly to seniors who lived alone and who might experience a medical emergency, such as a fall, which would leave them alert but immobile and unable to reach the telephone.

In 1989,<ref name="USPTO-78911769">{{cite web |url=http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:v9npe6.2.2 |title=I've fallen and I can't get up! |work=Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) | access-date=December 16, 2018 |archive-date=December 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216163632/http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4805:v9npe6.2.2 |url-status=dead}}</ref> LifeCall began running commercials that contained a scene wherein an elderly woman, identified by a dispatcher as "Mrs. Fletcher", uses the medical alert pendant after having fallen in the bathroom. After falling, Mrs. Fletcher speaks the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up!", after which the dispatcher informs her that he is sending help.

Edith Fore ''(née'' Edith Americus DeVirgilis; 1916–1997) portrayed Mrs. Fletcher.<ref name=webb19901219>{{cite news |newspaper=Phoenix New Times |url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1990-12-19/news/catch-a-fallen-star |title=CATCH A "FALLEN" STAR |first=Dewey |last=Webb |date=December 19, 1990 |access-date=December 16, 2018}}</ref><ref name="monitor">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,289115,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070706044012/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,289115,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 6, 2007 |title=Monitor |first=Anna |last=Holmes |date=August 15, 1997 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |access-date=December 16, 2018}}</ref> Although a stuntperson performed the fall itself, Fore said that she created the "I've fallen" line while discussing the accident with LifeCall.{{r|webb19901219}}

==== Legacy coverage ==== By 1990, the ''Phoenix New Times'' reported that "From coast to coast, from playground to barroom, an enfeebled whine rings out across the land. All together now: 'I've fallen . . . and I can't get up!'" The catchphrase appeared on t-shirts, novelty records, and in standup comedy.{{r|webb19901219}} In 1992, a sample of the catchphrase was featured in parody artist "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "I Can't Watch This" (a parody of M.C. Hammer's "U Can't Touch This"). The phrase was parodied in several television shows including ''The Golden Girls'', ''Family Matters'', ''Roseanne'', and ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air''. In 1993, Gary Larson drew a ''Far Side'' cartoon featuring the "I've fallen, and I can't get up" building. A sample of the phrase was also featured in a track used only in the Japanese Sega Saturn version of ''Fighting Vipers'' when the player is in the training stage.

==== Slogan trademark history ==== According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, after first applying in October 1990, LifeCall registered the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up" as a trademark in September 1992 until its status was cancelled in 1999 (LifeCall went out of business in 1993).<ref name="USPTO-status">{{cite web | url = http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=74108242 | title = US Serial, Registration, or Reference No. 74108242 |work=Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) System |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office |access-date=December 16, 2018}}</ref> In October 2002, the phrase "Help! I've fallen, and I can't get up!" became a registered trademark of Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc. The registration expired in May 2013.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=76233401&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch | title = U.S. Serial, Registration, or Reference No. 76233401 |work=Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) System |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office |access-date=October 31, 2019 }}</ref> A new registration was granted in May 2014.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86078356&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch |title=U.S. Serial, Registration, or Reference No. 86078356 |work=Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) System |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office |access-date=October 31, 2019 }}</ref> In June 2007, the phrase "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" also became a registered trademark of Life Alert.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78911769&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch |title=U.S. Serial, Registration, or Reference No. 78911769 |work=Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) System |publisher=United States Patent and Trademark Office |access-date=October 31, 2019 }}</ref> Both phrases are currently used on their website as well as in their commercials.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lifealert.com |title=Saving a LIFE from potential catastrophe Every 11 Minutes! |work=Life Alert |publisher=Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc. |access-date=December 16, 2018}}</ref>

==In popular culture== * In the 12th episode of the sixth season of the TV series ''Better Call Saul'', an elderly woman named Marion (Carol Burnett) uses her Life Alert pendant to report to the police that Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) is in her home, after which he flees.

== Founders and notable employees == * Founders (1987): Isaac Shepher, Zohar Loshitzer, and Arik Amir.<ref>{{citation |publisher=Dun & Bradstreet |url=https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.life_alert_emergency_response_inc.d3b249d8442f1fe7bd1a58c0f6dc3e54.html |title=Life Alert Emergency Response, Inc. Company Profile |quote=Life Alert. Company Description: Key Principal: Isaac Shepher}}</ref> * Notable employee (35 years): Mark Turenshine (1944–2016), American-Israeli basketball player<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles |url=https://jewishjournal.com/judaism/obituaries/183051 |title=Mark Turenshine, NBA star, Life Alert general manager, 71 |date=March 2, 2016}}</ref>

== See also == * Panic button

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * {{Official website|http://www.lifealert.com/}} * [http://www.lifealert.net/] * [http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Life-Alert-Emergency-Response-Inc-23351/ Life Alert], Better Business Bureau * [http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/1087/ LifeCall commercial at RetroJunk] * [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/opinion/wheelchair-falling-getting-up.html A wheelchair user's tale (NYT)]

<!-- try to maintain a sorted appearance --> Category:1980s television advertisements Category:1987 in the United States Category:1989 in the United States Category:1989 neologisms Category:1990s television advertisements Category:Advertising campaigns Category:American advertising slogans Category:American television advertisements Category:Catchphrases Category:Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Category:Distress signals Category:Health care companies established in 1987 Category:Quotations from television