A Nose for Marketing

Dr. Steven M. Denenberg is a plastic surgeon in Omaha, which is a long way from make-over meccas Beverly Hills and Newport Beach. So Denenberg has turned to the Internet to drum up business, with a home page at https://www.facialsurgery.com.

“Traveling is quite easy nowadays,” the doctor’s web site assures would-be customers, “and airline costs are low, especially compared to the costs of facial cosmetic surgery.”

Indeed, a Denenberg face-lift typically costs from $4,500 to $6,000, while a nose job costs $3,500 to $5,500. And those prices don’t include an extra $1,500 to $2,000 to pay for little extras, like the operating room and anesthesia.

The best part of the web site is its portfolio of hundreds of before-and-after pictures, each accompanied by the comments of Denenberg, who doesn’t mince words. “This nose has too much of what we call ‘projection,’ ” the doctor notes under one picture. “Pinocchio had a very projecting nose.”

Denenberg seems well prepared for handling jobs of Pinocchio proportions. His undergraduate degree is in engineering and applied physics.