It helps to know your demographic

Brochure for Philips "Lifeline" medial alarm

For Thanksgiving we went for turkey dinner at The Royal Canadian Legion. Back in 1926, the Legion was "Founded for the cause of the veterans". These days all of the veterans of WWI are gone, there are an ever decreasing number of veterans from WWII, and those who served in Korea are getting up in years. (Many of the soldiers who have served in Afghanistan are shockingly young, but that is another story.)

So it should not be at all surprising that the Legion has partnered with Philips to promote the latter's "Lifeline" product. An "easy-to-use medical alarm service", Lifeline is a perfect fit with the Legion's aging demographic.

Is this entirely an opportunistic effort by Philips? I don't really think so. With the life expectancy going up all the time, there are more and more people in their 70s and 80s. And with the increased mobility of the population, the seniors can't always have a family member nearby, or even in the same area code. This sort of product fills an important niche.