This document discusses the history and development of direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising over the past 10 years since Claritin launched the first major broadcast consumer campaign in 1997. It outlines key events and milestones in DTC advertising, the controversies surrounding DTC ads, and how attitudes towards consumer drug information have changed over time. Major brands that led in DTC spending such as Claritin, Nexium, Advair, and Lipitor are also highlighted.

1. THEFIRST
10YEARS
DTC
So much has happened since Claritin’s ‘Blue Skies’ spots
ushered in a new era of consumer drug advertising that it’s difficult to
believe the DTC adventure is only a decade old. Matthew Arnold
charts the key milestones, players and campaigns, and looks
ahead to the future of DTC

2. I
t’s been 10 years since it was
first “time for Claritin,” and
DTCadvertisingasweknowit
was born. A decade after the
FDA issued its draft guidance on
broadcast DTC, it seems strange
to imagine a time when spots for
Lipitor, Lunesta and Nexium did
not pepper our morning com-
mutes and our evenings on the
couch—just as it’s difficult to
imagine a world in which we
could not simply fire up the lap-
top and troll the Web for infor-
mationaboutafamilymalady.
Consumer drug ads have been
woven deeply into the fabric of
our daily lives. And just as the
Internethasmadeusmoreactive
participantsinourownhealth,so
has drug advertising contributed
to our sense of agency. But a
mere 10 years ago, doctors held a
virtual monopoly on drug infor-
mation, and if you were looking
to market a new treatment, your
choices were limited to detailing,
salesaidsandjournalads.
Consumer drug advertising was then, and remains still, controver-
sial. Drug ads, doomsayers said, would undermine physicians’ author-
ity and drive consumers to lobby doctors for medications they knew
nothing about. Those fears haven’t played out, though the Vioxx deba-
cle, rightly or wrongly, has provided critics with a case example of ads
broadening the market beyond the intended indication. Moreover, as
the public face of the industry, mass advertising has become a lighting
rod, channeling ire about access and affordability issues and presenting
ausefulbogeymanforambitiouspolslookingtostrikeapopulistpose.
But for all the guttural noises emanating from Washington about
DTC these days, consumer advertising isn’t going anywhere. It has
become broadly accepted knowledge, backed by the Prevention and
FDA studies, that drug ads help drive patients to take action on health
issues and contribute positively to the patient-physician dialogue. Atti-
tudes and expectations about the role of the patient in healthcare have
changed. And a look back at the days before broadcast DTC yields a
pictureofaregulatorymorassnoonewouldwanttoreturnto.
There were, in fact, more than a few efforts at consumer drug adver-
tising well before 1997. The first consumer print ad for a prescription
drug, for Merck’s Pneumovax, appeared in Reader’s Digest in 1981.
Two years later, Boots Pharmaceuticals ran the first TV drug ad in
the US—a spot for ibuprofen
brand Rufen featuring the
British company’s dapper CEO
with a chalkboard, boasting that
his drug was cheaper than
Motrin. Under pressure from
doctors, the FDA made the firm
pull the ad because it did not
include prescribing informa-
tion—even though it made no
efficacy claims—and instated a
two-year moratorium on con-
sumerads.
FDA confusion on the rules
around drug ads didn’t deter
some manufacturers from push-
ing forth through the late 1980s
and early 1990s with print ads for
HRTandallergydrugs,andearly
disease awareness TV ads from
the makers of Seldane and
Rogaine. One company even
ran a two-minute branded TV
spot with 90 seconds of product
information. And major print
campaigns ran for Ciba-Geigy’s
Estraderm, Wyeth’s Premarin
andGlaxoWellcome’sImitrex.
Bythemid-1990s,HIV/AIDSpatientgroupsweredemandingaccess
tothesamemedicalinformationthatdoctorshad,andHIVdrugmanu-
facturers began running branded ads in publications for those patients.
Under pressure from multiple parties and advised by their lawyers that
they couldn’t win a First Amendment case against advertisers, FDA
officials relented and drew up a draft guidance allowing broadcast
advertising. “They said,‘The fact is, this is going to happen with or with-
out our support, so we might as well try and shape it some way,’” says
MikeGuarini,president,NorthAmerica,forOgilvyHealthworld.
Andthat’swherethegame-changingClaritincampaigncamein.
‘Blue skies’ for mass advertising
The brand that jump-started broadcast consumer advertising was
already on the air when, on Aug. 8, 1997, the FDA gave companies the
greenlighttoairproductclaimsinadsforprescriptiondrugs. Theinitial
spots Schering-Plough had been running for the allergy drug would
today be called reminder ads, as they didn’t tell viewers what Claritin
was or what it did, instead advising simply that “It’s time for Claritin”
andimploringthemtoasktheirdoctoraboutit.
Despite their irritating vagueness, those early ads worked. “We had
incredibly high name recognition in those markets the ads ran in, and a
APRIL 2007 MM&M 35
PHOTOLEFT:PUNCHSTOCKPHOTORIGHT:DAND’ERRICO
Steve Andrzejewski and Matt Giegerich celebrate the 10th anniversary
of their groundbreaking “Blue Skies” DTC campaign for Claritin

3. comparative increase in new prescriptions,” recalls Steve Andrzejew-
ski, then product director on Claritin for Schering-Plough. With those
metrics, the Claritin team was able to win buy-in from skeptical senior
execs and expand the campaign when Washington cleared the way.
And having established name recognition and cemented the “Blue
skies”imagery through the pilots, Schering-Plough had already laid the
groundworkforthefirstofthemonsterconsumercampaigns.
Claritin was an ideal test subject for consumer advertising. As one of
two prescription medications in the antihistamine category (along with
Aventis’ Allegra), the drug was fairly novel, with a superior non-sedat-
ing claim. And Schering-Plough was, says CommonHealth president
MattGiegerich,anaggressiveclientwith“marketingtestosterone.”
‘Marketing testosterone’
“They really understood the dynamics of the antihistamine market-
place and they knew it was incredibly promotion-sensitive,” says
Giegerich, who was then launching CommonHealth consumer unit
Quantum and handled the brand in tandem with his colleague Dave
Chapman on professional advertising. The challenge was to get the
masses of allergy sufferers using drowsiness-inspiring OTC treatments
to consider a prescription alternative. Side effects were relatively low-
risk, self-diagnosis was easy and the potential was enormous. “They
knew if they hit hard on the professional side, they would dominate
share, and if they drove a lot of new patients to their doctors to ask
about prescription alternatives, they’d be getting the lion’s share of that
growth,”saysGiegerich.
Schering-Plough took the plunge in a big way. Claritin ad spend
topped $142 million in measured media in 1998, according to TNS
Media Intelligence. Buoyed by strong prescription growth, the brand
continued to receive strong support across five line extensions and
blazedanumberofnewtrailsinconsumeradvertisingincludingtheuse
of celebrity spokespeople (former Good Morning America anchor
JoanLundenandMajorLeagueBaseballstarMikePiazza),acombina-
tion of branded and unbranded ads and a rich media mix. “We learned
a little bit from every campaign we put out there and did continual mar-
ket segmentation research to understand our audience,” says Andrze-
DTC:THEFIRST10YEARS
DTC Milestones
August 9,1997
FDA releases its Draft
Guidance to Industry,
effectively legalizing
broadcast DTC ads by
eliminating requirement
that ads present the
entire brief summary.
Schering-Plough’s
“Blue Skies” campaign
for Claritin became the
first major broadcast
DTC campaign
May 16, 1998
Prevention’s first annual
National Survey of
Consumer Reactions to
DTC shows that ads drive
viewers to doctors, but
that very few demand
specific medications, as
critics had feared
August9,1999
FDA clarifies the
requirements for risk
information in broadcast
DTC, allowing for
presentation of a “major
statement” of serious
risks in lieu of full
information
April,2001
AstraZeneca launches
Nexium. The next-
generation “purple pill”
will go on to be the
perennial big spender in
DTC, crossing the $1
billion mark in ad spend
by 2006—and making
that back many times
over in sales
April 18, 2002
Ex-FDA commissioner
David Kessler, once a
vociferous opponent
of DTC, confesses to
advertisers: “You’ve
had a pretty good
track record with DTC;
I guess I was wrong”
February1,2004
Viagra’s challengers,
Cialis and Levitra, go
head-to-head at the
Super Bowl, firing the
first shot in an ED ad
boomlet that will rage
until PhRMA tells them
to tone it down
(continued on pg. 39)
APRIL 2007 MM&M 37
Combined DTC ad spend in
TV, magazines, newspapers,
internet, radio and outdoors
1. Nexium $1.08 billion
Company: AstraZeneca
Category: Heartburn/PPI
Key Media: TV $629.2 (Ranks 1st);
Mags $346.7 (1st); Web $60.2 (1st);
Radio $26.2 (1st)
High Spend: 2004 ($242.1M)
Low Spend: 2006 ($181.0M)
2. Advair $632.5 million
Company: GlaxoSmithKline
Category: Asthma
Key Media: TV $376.5 (2nd); Mags
$201.9 (2nd); N’papers $42.9 (2nd)
High Spend: 2006 ($194.7M)
Low Spend: 2004 ($88.7M)
3. Crestor $541.9 million
Company: AstraZeneca
Category: Cholesterol
Key Media: TV $311.0 (7th); Mags
$174.4 (5th); N’papers $28.8 (7th);
Web $23.9 (5th)
High Spend: 2004 ($214.3M)
Low Spend: 2005* ($141.5M)
4. Lipitor $539.4 million
Company: Pfizer
Category: Cholesterol
Key Media: TV $337.0 (6th);
N’papers $65.6 (1st)
High Spend: 2006 ($142.7M)
Low Spend: 2002 ($80.2M)
5. Lunesta $512.9 million
Company: Sepracor
Category: Insomnia
Key Media: TV $368.0 (3rd); Mags
$139.6 (8th)
High Spend: 2006 ($297.8M)
Low Spend: 2005** ($215.1M)
6. Plavix $502.1 million
Company: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Category: Blood thinning
Key Media: TV $309.0 (8th); Mags
$188.0 (3rd)
High Spend: 2006 ($149.8M)
Low Spend: 2002 ($53.6M)
7. Singulair $497.1 million
Company: Merck
Category: Asthma/Allergies
Key Media: TV $367.4 (4th)
High Spend: 2003 ($115.6M)
Low Spend: 2002 ($50.8)
8. Viagra $489.5 million
Company: Pfizer
Category: Erectile Dysfunction
Key Media: Mags $151.6 (7th);
N’papers $55.1 (2nd); Web $31.7
(4th); Radio $11.3 (7th)
High Spend: 2003 ($112.0M)
Low Spend: 2005 ($80.5)
9. Flonase $418.6 million
Company: GlaxoSmithKline
Category: Allergies
Key Media: N’papers $51.4 (3rd)
High Spend: 2004† ($118.6M)
Low Spend: 2006 ($17.0M)
10. Allegra $411.5 million
Company: Sanofi-Aventis
Category: Allergies
Key Media: Mags $180.6 (4th); Radio
$21.1 (2nd)
High Spend: 2002 ($123.4M)
Low Spend: 2005†† ($71.0M)
Key Media listed only where brand ranks in the top 10.
* Launched Sept. 2003; negligible DTC spend in 2003
** Launched April 2005
† Patent expired Nov. 2003, but no generic
competition until Feb. 2006
†† Lost patent exclusivity, July 2005
Source: TNS Media Intelligence
10 Most Visible DTC Brands, 2002-2006

4. DTC:THEFIRST10YEARS
jewski, who is now chief commercial officer at King Pharmaceuticals.
“Weperfecteditastimewenton.”
The dawn of broadcast DTC was met with a ferocious physician
backlash. “My personal doctors were really angry with me because I
was part of this,”recalls Anne Devereux, CEO of TBWA WorldHealth
and LLNS. “One even didn’t want to treat me. You don’t hear that any-
more, because they’re relieved that for so many of the higher risk dis-
eases, patients are hearing more about them and taking them more
seriously. But in the early days, it was perceived as a total threat to
physicianauthority.”
Looking back, it’s hard to see what all the fuss was about, but broad-
cast drug ads wrought a significant shift in the patient-physician
dynamic. “When broadcast was approved, you had this complete sym-
bioticrelationshipbetweendoctorandpatient,”saysDevereux. “Then,
patients started to feel empowered by things they saw on TV, and
managedcareforcedphysicianstoseemorepatientsinashorterperiod
of time, so if a patient felt strongly about something, she had to become
herownadvocate.”
Complicating things, some of the early DTC work was not particu-
larly well-targeted. Devereux recalls hearing of patients with depres-
sion asking their doctors about Claritin because they’d seen the
reminderadsandassociatedtheblueskiesmotifwithhappiness.
“A lot of people early on were seduced by the great numbers you
could reach through mass advertising,” says Dorothy Wetzel, the for-
mer Pfizer DTC guru who is now SVP management supervisor at
Saatchi & Saatchi. “Now, they’re realizing those big numbers can actu-
ally have a negative spillover effect because if you’re reaching people
whodon’tneedtheproduct,theytendtogetannoyedattheads.”
Physicians and consumers weren’t the only ones skeptical of DTC
early on. “There was a lot of wrangling with senior management,”says
longtime Merck marketer Len Tacconi, now president of Discovery
Health Media Enterprises. “There were people who got the vision and
were inspired by it, and then there were those who were like,‘Why are
youhereandhowcanwemakeyougoaway?…You’redivertingalotof
DTC milestones
September30,2004
Merck announces it is
pulling Cox-2 inhibitor
Vioxx off the market
due to safety issues,
which emboldens DTC
critics and ramps up
pressure on industry
advertising and
promotion practices
from Washington
November15,2004
FDA pressures Pfizer
into pulling its Viagra
“Wild Thing” spots for
overstating efficacy—
seen as a harbinger of
the FDA’s heightened
sensitivity around DTC
March28,2005
Setting the tone for
post-Vioxx DTC, J&J’s
Ortho-McNeil launches
a spot for its Ortho
Evra patch, featuring
blunt presentation of
risk information by a
doctor speaking
directly to the camera.
AstraZeneca rolls out
similarly direct ads for
Nexium and Crestor
April4,2005
Sepracor launches
sleep aid Lunesta with
massive TV and print
buys—$161 million on
TV alone in 2005—
prompting a hefty ad
response from Sanofi-
Aventis for its category
leader Ambien
July29,2005
PhRMA bids to
pre-empt new DTC
regulations with
industry self-policing,
adopting its Guiding
Principles on DTC Ads
About Prescription
Medicines. The new
guidelines, though
voluntary, effectively
lower the boom on
reminder ads and
deflate ED ad spending
October2006
FDA’s DDMAC adds a
second four-person
DTC review group to
accommodate soaring
demand for ad
approvals
Total DTC spend, 1997-2006 ($ billions)
0
1
2
3
4
5
ë97 ‘98 ‘99 ‘00 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06
Source: TNS Media Intelligence
0.76
1.17
1.62
2.30
2.53 2.59
3.22
4.08 4.14
4.74
Total DTC spend by media, 1997-2006 ($ billions)
TV Magazines News-
papers
InternetRadio Outdoor
Source: TNS Media Intelligence
0
5
10
15
20
15.84
9.52
0.88 0.59 0.31 0.04
APRIL 2007 MM&M 39
“Therewerepeoplewhowereinspiredbythe
vision,andthentherewerethosewhowerelike,
‘Howcanwemakeyougoaway?’” —LenTacconi

5. moneyandattentionawayfromourtrueaudience—thephysician.’”
The return-on-investment data bore out the value of DTC, but the
Vioxx scare seemed to validate one common criticism—that consumer
ads might seduce many patients for whom a drug might not be neces-
sary, or even safe. While the DTC guidelines released in 2005 by the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America went a long
way toward demonstrating that the industry can self-police advertising
(the number of DDMAC-issued warning letters on broadcast promo-
tions since: zilch), the changing of the guard in Washington promises
plenty more efforts to curb DTC in the coming months. But for the
most part, the industry seems cautiously optimistic that these will
amount to little more than congressional grandstanding—or that any
changeswillultimatelybenefitindustrybyclarifyingthegroundrules.
“These debates—about access to care, the cost of drugs and the
implications of DTC—have been knocking around since the begin-
ning,”says Ogilvy Healthworld’s Guarini. “Certainly, some Democrats
will want to address healthcare. That’s fine, and we’ll have a balanced
debateandsomethingswillchange. Itmightbechaoticandupsettingat
first, but in the long run, it’s about getting patients in doctors’ offices,
gettingthemdiagnosedandonmedication.”
Some see the pendulum swinging back—not toward journal ads and
sales aids, but rather to a more holistic orientation which reunites con-
sumer and professional messaging. “We went from a fully profession-
ally oriented industry that spent all of its money on physicians to one
that spent a huge amount on consumers,” says Meg Columbia-Walsh,
managing partner, president consumer and e-business at Common-
Health. “We were following the packaged-goods model, and that was a
good thing, because it taught us how to target markets and articulate
APRIL 2007 MM&M 41
DTC:THEFIRST10YEARS
Tom Abrams, director, DDMAC. As the FDA’s
top cop on the drug advertising beat, Abrams’
comes with campaign-culling clout. If only he
had enough manpower to keep up...
Steve Andrzejewski, chief commercial officer, King
Pharmaceuticals. Presided over Schering-Plough’s
Claritin DTC and proved this year he’s still a true believer
with King’s gutsy Super Bowl disease awareness ad.
Don Apruzzese, regional commercial
leader, AstraZeneca. Before his recent move
to lead a regional launch of Symbicort for
asthma, Apruzzese served as AZ’s senior
director, consumer marketing, putting his background
in traditional consumer advertising to good use in
massive campaigns for the likes of Crestor and Nexium.
Meg Columbia-Walsh, managing partner
and president, consumer and e-business,
CommonHealth. CommonHealth’s head of
consumer advertising is fast emerging as a
thought leader in DTC and direct-to-patient disciplines.
Anne Devereux, CEO, TBWA WorldHealth
and LLNS. Having headed the healthcare arm
of BBDO (of Nasonex bee fame), Devereux
now coordinates consumer powerhouse
TBWA WorldHealth and professional shop LLNS.
Deborah Dick-Rath, executive director,
global advertising, Novartis. Novartis might
not be the biggest player in DTC advertising,
but under Dick-Rath they have one of the most
impressive track records, with memorable efforts like
those for Zelnorm and Lamisil.
Herb Ehrenthal, VP, global advertising and
marketing comms., Schering-Plough. One of
the last of the old-fashioned pharma company
advertising managers, Ehrenthal has done a
fine job of leading Schering-Plough into the DTC age.
Bob Ehrlich, chairman, DTC Perspectives. Ehrlich
parleyed his experience with the Lipitor consumer
launch into a mini-media empire for DTC advertisers
and featuring an established annual DTC conference.
Ellen Fields, SVP, group account director, DDB.
Heads healthcare business at one of the great
consumer advertising agencies.
Mike Guarini, president, North America,
Ogilvy Healthworld. One of the most visible
and thoughtful executives in the consumer
healthcare agency world.
Tim Healey, SVP, commercial operations,
Advanced Magnetics. Headed Sepracor’s
audacious and highly successful launch of
Lunesta—perhaps the biggest mass-media
advertising splash a brand has ever made.
Kevin Holowicki, director, advertising media services,
GlaxoSmithKline. At the helm of the biggest spender in
DTC, Holowicki is known as a master of measurement.
Pat Kelly, ex-president, US Pharm., Pfizer;
destination unknown. Few understood the
potential and limits of DTC advertising (or, as
he might prefer, “DTC education”) like Kelly,
and whatever Pfizer’s commercial sins in the McKinnell/
Katen era, lackluster marketing wasn’t one of them.
Robin Koval, president, Kaplan Thaler. Not
for nothing is Kaplan Thaler a big Pfizer shop
—its “dot” did for Zoloft what the duck did for
Aflac. Now Koval’s crew is focused on Lipitor.
Jim Maffezolli, team leader, consumer strategy,
Pfizer. Charged with keeping Pfizer on its toes in the
consumer arena.
Joe McCarthy, VP, worldwide advertising and
marketing communications, Johnson & Johnson.
McCarthy, who came from Boston indie ad shop MMB,
handles agency relations across J&J’s global empire.
Andrew Schirmer, EVP and managing
director, McCann HumanCare. This mass-
advertising evangelist arrived in 2003 from
Merkley, where he was president. Has since
established McCann’s consumer arm as a top shop.
Ed Slaughter, corporate director, consumer
marketing, Merck. Having proved DTC’s value
to public health as head of Prevention’s annual
surveys of consumer responsiveness to DTC,
Slaughter has taken his marketing expertise to Merck.
Len Tacconi, president, Discovery Health Media
Enterprises. Merck emerged as a DTC heavyweight
after tapping Tacconi from the packaged goods arena in
1996 to build its consumer marketing division.
Dorothy Wetzel, SVP, management
supervisor, Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare
Comms. Helped establish Pfizer as the P&G of
big pharma, setting up the Pfizer For Living
program and a health literacy offensive along the way.
20 Most Influential DTC People
10 Biggest DTC Spenders, 2002-2006 ($ billions)
1 GlaxoSmithKline 2.97
2 Pfizer 2.78
3 AstraZeneca 1.82
4 Merck 1.52
5 Sanofi-Aventis 1.11
6 Johnson & Johnson 1.05
7 Novartis 0.94
8 Schering-Plough 0.56
9 Sepracor 0.51
10 Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi-Aventis 0.50
Source: TNS Media Intelligence

6. positioning to different targets. As a result, it changed the culture to a
more information-seeking one that gives people more choices. Now,
there’s a shift toward a more conservative middle, and it’s going to fall
into two areas: improving the doctor-patient dialogue and compliance
andpersistency.”
This shift is being driven by divergent technological trends. The
paucity of new mass-market drugs in development and the burgeoning
number of specialized treatments is fueling a need for better targeting.
Meanwhile, media fragmentation is devaluing traditional mass-adver-
tising, and the proliferation of new marketing channels—eCRM, viral
and social marketing, mobile marketing, direct TV, etc.—is enabling it.
But using those marketing channels effectively requires close synchro-
nizationofpatientandphysicianmessaging.
“We had this separation of church and state,” says TBWA/LLNS’
Devereux. “It used to be that we’d figure out the consumer insight and
the strongest communication of the data and build the detail and the
DTC, and very often, these two lines of communication were very dif-
ferent. The physician is trained to be data-driven and analytical, so he
wouldn’t accept the quality-of-life argument. Now they understand
that the best drug with the best data isn’t going to be effective without
understandingpatientpriorities.”
The culture of medicine is changing, as medical schools teach
students how to talk—and listen—to their patients. “DTC has helped
drivethat,”saysDevereux. Andaparallelshiftistakingplaceathealth-
care advertising agencies, many of which are scrambling to meld their
various consumer and professional specialties, and at pharmaceutical
companies, some of which now forbid their consumer and professional
marketing arms from planning campaigns separately. “It’s not all of
them, and it’s not necessarily the large ones, but it’s the smart ones,”
saysColumbia-Walsh. “Thesilodaysareover,”addsDevereux.
Personalized marketing
Saatchi’s Wetzel sees an age of“environmentally sensitive”marketing,
in which “less is left behind,” as messaging is more carefully crafted to
appeal to multiple constituencies in tandem—consumers, physicians,
regulators, patient and professional groups. The buzz these days is
around microsegmentation and a personalized marketing to match the
emergingpersonalizedmedicine.
But don’t count out the good, old-fashioned “big TV and glossy
blast” just yet. There’s still a vital role for traditional mass advertising,
says Andrew Schirmer, EVP and managing director of McCann
HumanCare. “It’s very sexy to talk about viral and CRM,” says
Schirmer, “and of course, we need to look at those things as we go for-
ward, but not as a replacement for mass advertising where appropriate.
BecausethebigdifferenceforDTCisthatIcancastawidenet,because
people suffering from that affliction are going to see it, and I don’t care
ifmillionsmoreseeit.”■
DTC:THEFIRST10YEARS
APRIL 2007 MM&M 43
5 Biggest Buzz-Generating DTC Campaigns
1. Pfizer’s Viagra: “Wild Thing” (McCann Erickson)
Buzz comes easily to ED drugs, and the
original, whose name has become a byword
for the category it established, is certainly no
exception. But Pfizer found its “Wild Thing”
ads the object of unwanted attention in late-
2004, as post-Vioxx angst about DTC
crystallized around the category. FDA asked the company to pull the ads,
saying they overstated efficacy claims—by suggesting that Viagra could
restore a middle-aged Romeo’s youthful vigor—and understated risks.
2. Lilly Icos’ Cialis: “Bathtubs” (Grey Worldwide)
Cialis’s entry into the ED Super Bowl
sweepstakes was a gamble. Ads for rival
Levitra played it safe, with a macho disease-
awareness approach featuring Mike Ditka,
and eschewing product claims—in part, for
fear of having to run risk information that
included warnings of painful four-hour erections. The Cialis team employed
a fully-branded approach, couched in tastefully muted, gender-neutral
creative. The priapism warning made the spots memorable and allowed
Lilly Icos to advance its superior long-lasting claim for Cialis, which
leapfrogged Levitra to become the Viagra challenger with momentum.
3. Novartis’ Lamisil: “Digger” (Deutsch)
How to convince consumers that they
needed a prescription medication to treat
their discolored toenails? Novartis’ animated
character, Digger the Dermatophyte, made
for some memorable creative, and the gross-
out tactics seem to have driven many to their
doctor, judging by the drug’s sales. The image of the giant pill that once
crushed the fungal horror was pulled on a charge of overhyping efficacy.
4. TAP/TPNA’s Rozerem: “Your dreams miss you” (Cramer-Krasselt)
TAP got a late start with these spots featuring
Abraham Lincoln and a talking beaver.
Sepracor had been saturating the airwaves
with Lunesta ads for two years, and Sanofi-
Aventis piled on in defense of its Ambien
franchise. Rozerem has yet to post dramatic
gains, but these spots—with their stand-out creative, certainly grabbed
brand name recognition, sparking a storm of Freudian speculation at
water coolers, online and off, about their symbolic meaning.
5. GlaxoSmithKline’s Combivir: “I am not cured” (Palio)
GSK’s sophisticated 2002 effort featuring
Magic Johnson used branded and unbranded
ads, mingling an early compliance/adherence
message with a branded call to action.
Johnson’s 1991 announcement of his HIV-
positive status and retirement from
basketball shocked fans and sparked a popular conversation about HIV at
a time when AIDS was still a virtual death sentence. His reemergence
more than a decade later, looking healthy in these beautifully-composed
ads for one of the drugs that had made AIDS a chronic but treatable
condition for many, reignited that conversation. Moreover, the campaign’s
benevolent, disease-awareness focus helped soften the image of a
company frequently targeted by activists over access and pricing issues.
“It’sverysexytotalkaboutviralandCRM,butfor
DTCIcancastawidenet…peoplesufferingfrom
thatafflictionaregoingtoseeit” —AndrewSchirmer