• by Les Luchter , Staff Writer, Yesterday

William Shatner’s 60-year journey since the premiere of “Star Trek” in 1966 has taken him from “Boldly go where no man has gone before” to “Boldly Hear What’s Next.”

The latter is the tagline for Audien Hearing’s recently launched one-year partnership with the 95-year-old actor, whose own hearing problems began when an on-set explosion during “Star Trek’s” first season caused ongoing tinnitus (buzzing or ringing in the ears).

Since then, Shatner has helped raise awareness of that condition through partnerships with the nonprofits American Tinnitus Association and Tinnitus Quest. And nearly four years ago -- via a campaign for HearingLife, a nationwide chain of hearing care centers -- he began to talk to older Americans about general hearing loss.

While HearingLife sells hearing aids prescribed by healthcare professionals, Audien Hearing is a leader in the new category of over-the-counter hearing aids, which the FDA began allowing in 2022.

Shatner, it turns out, “felt the traditional process was cumbersome, sort of unattractive to him, and not accessible to the masses,” Audien co-founder and CEO Ishan Patel tells Pharma & Health Insider. “He was disconnected from it.”

Not so with Audien, says Patel.

“He’s gone through our hearing specialist program, and now uses our hearing aids,” says Patel, confirming that Shatner “does have mild-to-moderate hearing loss associated with aging.”

“We wanted somebody who was trusted and impactful in the world,” Patel explains. ”What attracted us to Bill was that he was so unbelievably passionate about bringing an affordable and accessible solution to the world.”

That affordability, in the form of an under-$99 hearing aid, helped Audien become the first hearing aid brand in Walmart, and Audien is now also sold in Walgreens, CVS and Target  -- at prices as high as $689.  About 70% of sales take place online, though, where the brand began in 2020 before OTC was legal.

“There’s this idea that wearing hearing aids makes you old, that it’s an admission of defeat instead of embracing life,” laments Patel, proclaiming that Shatner “every day takes life into his own hands and lives like he is my age, 31.  He loves to live fast, live young, go to space at 90, start a heavy metal band. He’s amazingly energetic and vital.”

Shatner’s embrace of Audien’s hearing aids also shows that “you should feel loud and proud about owning your own hearing loss and living to the best of your ability,” Patel says. “Bill is 95, proud of his hearing aids, versus embarrassed by them.”

Stigma about hearing loss has resulted in it becoming “the third largest untreated medical condition on planet earth,” Patel says. “One and a half billion people in the world are struggling with hearing loss, and yet 80% do not wear a hearing aid.”

“We wear eyeglasses as a stylistic expression to show off our features and make it part of our fashion,” Patel paraphrases Shatner as saying. “Hearing aids should be the exact same thing, something you’re proud of, something you accessorize, something you get excited about.”

Patel continues that hearing aids should be seen as “a pure benefit to the world” rather than being seen in such terms as “I don’t want to grow old” or “I don’t want to look like I’m older.”

Audien ads featuring Shatner have so far launched over such media as Meta platforms, TikTok, YouTube and in-game (via AppLovin),  and he’s also involved with a current sweepstakes promotion.  Patel says a 360 campaign –--including Audien’s largest TV effort ever -- will launch in Q1  2027. 

The ad efforts are mainly targeted to the 65+ audience that predominantly has hearing loss, to show them that they can “live their life fully, the way they want to, on their own terms,” Patel says.

But the campaign will also serve to “show their loved ones that they have the ability to come together to tackle critical health needs…Because it’s over-the-counter, you can actually get this and give it to the people you love, and change their lives.”

Around the same time that Audien’s larger campaign starts, Patel teases that the brand will also be launching “new technologies that will be the first of their kind in an over-the-counter hearing aid” and “disrupt the entire industry,” with Shatner playing a role in promoting these.

Those technologies are likely to involve the intro of Audien hearing aids that also function as health wearables. While several brands offer tracking features like step counts in prescription models, and Apple’s Air Pods can now include a hearing aid feature and link with the  iOS Health app, this would be a first for an OTC hearing aids brand.

This wouldn’t be Audien’s first technology breakthrough. It lays claim to building the first-ever touchscreen-controlled hearing aid (its Atom X model, which Shatner uses).

Indeed, says Patel, Shatner is “so adamant that technology is here to enhance the way we live, love and connect…He’s excited about not just solving people’s hearing, but solving their greater health needs and health risks with just a hearing aid.”