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Healthcare Tops Concerns for Americans in Latest Gallup Poll

March 29, 2018 0

In the latest Gallup poll, 55% of Americans “worry a great deal” about the availability and affordability of healthcare. The concerns around healthcare top the list, beating out other major concerns such as Crime and violence, Federal spending and the budget deficit, and Availability of guns. A further 23% ranked their concern level at “a fair amount” and another 23% classified themselves under “only a little or not at all.”*

According to Gallup, this is the fifth consecutive year that healthcare availability and affordability tops the list. (The first year that healthcare was asked about was in 2001.)  Senior Editor Jeffrey M. Jones, PhD, noted in the article highlighting the results that, “It is the only issue of the 11 Gallup has measured consistently to maintain this level of worry.”

Jones added that after being nearly “equally likely to worry about [healthcare] in between 2014 and 2016, after major provisions of the Affordable Care Act went into effect,” currently “Democrats have typically worried more than Republicans about the issue, including a 72% to 39% difference this year.”

With President Trump and Congress “taking steps to undo key provisions of the law,” Jones predicts that “Americans' anxiety about the healthcare situation should persist. … Democrats' especially high concern about healthcare could make it a mobilizing issue for the party as it seeks to win control of Congress this fall.”

For more information and poll results, click here.

 

 

* Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted March 1-8, 2018, with a random sample of 1,041 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. 

 

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DTC in FocusDTC NewsUncategorized

Apple Continues to Expand Reach in Healthcare, Launches AC Wellness

February 28, 2018 0

In the spring of 2018, Apple plans to premiere AC Wellness, independent medical centers for its employees and dependents offering concierge-like healthcare. As first reported by CNBC yesterday, Apple “quietly published a website, acwellness.com, with more details about its initiative and a careers page listing jobs.” While little information is currently available, AC Wellness’ website boasts that their Network will combine technology, high-quality care, and a unique patient experience to drive engagement and achieve exceptional health outcomes. The website also advertises for career opportunities. Positions to be filled include Health Partner, Physicians, Care Navigator, and Nurses, among others.

This initiative comes shortly after Tim Cook commented about Apple’s ability to make “significant contributions” to health care earlier this month during a shareholders meeting. Cook shared that the tech innovator is in a “great position”, being able to leverage its consumer-friendly approach, as reported by CNBC.

Apple has already been collaborating with the FDA to improve regulations on digital health products. Other coordinators announced last summer as a part of the FDA’s Pre-cert pilot program were Fitbit, Johnson & Johnson, Pear Therapeutics, Phosphorus, Roche, Samsung, Tidepool, and Verily. The work is a part of the Digital Health Innovation Action Plan.

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Peter J Solomon Releases Whitepaper on POC Verification, Standardization

November 30, 2017 0

Peter J Solomon's Marketing Services Group released a whitepaper recently on the importance of standardization and auditing practices within the point-of-care (POC) space. With POC being such an important piece in educating patients and aiding the HCP-patient conversation, “marketers and healthcare professionals are concerned about the verification, standardization and auditing of network content and scale,” noted Mark Boidman, partner and managing director for the company.

Boidman highlights efforts by the Point-of-Care Communications Council (PoC3) to combat these issues. (PoC3 is working to create verification and audit standards as well as increased transparency.) The POC space, as Boidman mentions, has an advantage in that “various elements of the channel are measureable, including the number of locations in a POC network, as well as the resulting ‘script lift' (increase in number of prescriptions written) or ROI of a particular campaign.” He urges that standardization will be needed for POC to “reach its full potential as an advertising medium.”

PoC3's work on creating an industry set of guidelines is currently underway, with the draft version being reviewed by “client and agency advisors serving on the Verification and Validation Standards committee,” noted the council in a recent industry statement. Boidman advised that these guidelines, once finalized, will then need to gain traction and be universally embraced by the POC industry. “These developments, which are already in motion, will provide a firm framework on verification, standardization, and auditing in order to maximize the value of POC channels and the education that this platform provides for its patients and healthcare providers nationwide.”

Peter J Solomon hosted a PoC3 Town Hall earlier in the fall to discuss the importance of these items. Select members of PoC3 will speak on these issues, as well as share the latest on their developing ethics guidelines and auditing standards, at the 2018 DTC National Conference, held April 18-20 in Boston.

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Susan G. Komen Launches Innovative Initiatives to Support Research

November 30, 2017 0

Susan G. Komen announced this month that it has partnered up with Data Does Good to support breast cancer research via purchases made by holiday shoppers. As outlined in a news release, “for every dollar participating supporters spend on Amazon annually, Data Does Good will donate 1% to Susan G. Komen to fund breakthrough research to prevent and find the cures for breast cancer.” There is no extra cost to the shopper, they simply add the Data Does Good extension to their web browser and answer some basic demographic question. Data is anonymized and automatically capture when the user shops for products on Amazon. This data helps reveal shopping insights as well as identifying any relevant trends, which retailers and brands can receive for market research. Any related proceeds received by Data Does Good are then donated – and matched by an affiliated partner – to Susan G. Komen. Depending on when a user has added this extension, either 1% or 2% of their Amazon spending is donated (up to $3,000 annually); Data Does Good and its matching partner have guaranteed a minimum of $100,000.

Last month, Susan G. Komen took another innovative approach to raising funds – launching its first crowdsourcing effort to support metastatic breast cancer research, BeMoreThanPink.org. This initiative was created to help the organization's Bold Goal, which is to “reduce current breast cancer deaths in the U.S. by 50 percent by 2026.” According to the news release, “[crowdsourcing] donors have the opportunity to contribute directly to the pioneering work of four scientists and their teams who are dedicated to making discoveries that will ultimately improve outcomes for patients suffering from metastatic breast cancer.” These donations will also be matched dollar-for-dollar, by Odonate Therapeutics™, a company dedicated to the development of therapeutics that improve and extend the lives of patients with cancer, and an affiliated partner, up to a maximum of $1.5 million.

A new marketing campaign, created by Dalton Agency, was launched in support of BeMoreThanPink.org. The multichannel PSA launched in October, and features Valynda Planeta, a 38-year old mother of three battling stage IV cancer. One of the TV spots shows Planeta writing letters to her children that are to be opened at special momentous occasions – their graduation days, weddings, and births of their future children – moments she will not be there for. Another TV spot shows her removing her wig, false eyelashes, and eyebrows, as she has lost all of her hair due to chemo. The ads conclude with the donation information.

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DTC-In-Perspective by Bob EhrlichUncategorized

DTC in Perspective: HIV Drug Starts DTC Television

November 17, 2017 0

ViiV drug Triumeq for HIV just launched a television campaign. HIV drugs have not used television historically choosing instead targeted print as its main media. The number of people who have HIV is about 1.1 million in the United States. HIV can be successfully treated and newer drugs have turned what was once a deadly path to AIDS into a manageable chronic disease.

ViiV is a company formed as a joint venture between Glaxo and Pfizer to specialize in treating HIV. Glaxo owns the majority stake. What is very interesting is ViiV’s decision to use television for a relatively small category. The price of the drug is one reason ViiV can afford to go more broadly in media. The cost is about $2900 a month. Of course, insurance companies negotiate lower prices but assuming ViiV is getting over $20,000 a year per new patient, it makes sense to cast a wide net for new patients.

Bob Ehrlich
“ViiV will know fairly quickly if the ROI is positive.”
-Bob Ehrlich

The Triumeq ad features real patients discussing their moving forward with their lives. They say they decided to use Triumeq to treat their HIV. The benefits cited by the real patients are once a day dosing taken any time of day and that it can be taken with or without food. The fair balance for Triumeq is lengthy starting after the first 25 seconds and lasting about 60 seconds. That makes these ads expensive to run requiring 90 second buys. Most DTC ads use 60 seconds.

The ad is upbeat and well executed. The use of real patients is a good technique. It will be interesting to see how much ViiV invests in television given the fairly limited target audience size. They have taken a category that has kept away from mass media and taken a shot at television. Other specialty category drugs have done this in recent years for cancer and hepatitis. ViiV would need about 50 new patients per million invested in television to break even. That number seems achievable and I am sure ViiV will know fairly quickly if the ROI is positive.

The HIV category is highly competitive with multiple drugs used and promoted. Triumeq has decided to up the media ante by choosing television. We will see if anyone else follows.

Bob Ehrlich

DTC-In-Perspective by Bob EhrlichUncategorized

DTC in Perspective: The Obamacare Reform Puzzle and DTC

June 30, 2017 0

First, I am now back writing my weekly column after taking a couple of months off to recharge my batteries. Happy to be back giving my thoughts on issues affecting our DTC community. As I was watching CNN discuss healthcare reform yesterday I was surprised to hear host Chris Cuomo say drug prices were the main driver of rising insurance costs. He said this to Senator Dick Durban a democrat from Illinois. Durbin promptly said DTC is a big culprit in rising drug bills.

Ok, Chris and Dick. You are both wrong. The drug bill in America is a relatively minor cost at 10% of total health care expenditures. DTC spending is about 1% of total drug sales, hardly a driver of rising costs. While some high profile drugs are very expensive for cancer and hepatitis C, most branded drugs are not. The facts say Americans spend about $1100 annually versus $770 in Canada and $740 in Germany. (OECD study 2014) That difference is significant but not the driver of out of control health insurance premiums and deductibles.

Bob Ehrlich
“Reducing information flow…is not the answer to lowering health care costs.”
-Bob Ehrlich

The bottom line problem in America is we have an incentive for all providers to do services to get paid. We reward treatment not prevention. Doctors and hospitals get paid for procedures not watchful waiting or advice on prevention. Defensive medicine encourages added tests to protect from lawsuits. The latest technology we all love is expensive to install and providers recover their costs by high utilization. Americans want fast answers to their health issues and providers are more than willing to accommodate us with MRI’s and diagnostic procedures.

Drug companies are under attack and the lack of facts used by reporters like Cuomo are troubling. Durbin has no basis for saying DTC is a major problem driving up prices. His actual basis is his own distorted view that if patients ask their doctor for an advertised drug, then that must be for a drug not really needed. While DTC advertising is designed to encourage patient initiated discussion it is the doctor who decides whether it is needed. Drug companies have a chance to make their case to the consumer and doctor through DTC, detailing and medical advertising. Reducing information flow as Durbin seems to want is not the answer to lowering health costs.

The better solution to health care cost control is to incentivize consumers to shop around. We can do this by total price transparency from providers and by consumers having some skin in the game with their deductibles and copays. Hospitals and doctors want their fees to be opaque to patients. As long as someone else pays our bills most consumers do not ask or care. As we all face higher deductibles we are starting to care more what we are being charged.

Obamacare has caused significant increases in premiums, deductibles and copays. If we are to continue it, then we either can care more as consumers about prices we pay or ask the government to subsidize insurance companies to keep those premiums, deductibles and copays under control. I would recommend the former. If we give consumers the knowledge and incentive to negotiate with providers for lower prices, it will happen. There are many ways to provide consumers with price and quality information on providers. We have health technology companies who have that information and are happy to provide it. If we just ask government to continue to pay insurance companies to subsidize high provider costs we continue the fee for service model.

What unfortunately is happening is each side of the political aisle has reduced the discussion to simplistic slogans. We need moderates on both sides to create a coalition to solve the problem not to say ridiculous things like millions will die if we change Obamacare or Americans must be free of government mandates. Maybe I ask too much that reasonable people emerge to create a more workable health care system. I can still dream that the warring parties will actually think more about solving problems for America than destroying the opposition.

Bob Ehrlich

DTC NewsUncategorized

From Coping to Confident

May 12, 2017 0

Specialty Drug Marketers Can Tap into Patient Stories

Stories are ingrained in us from the time we are infants. The nighttime ritual of parents and children cozying up with a storybook or two is a genuine and enjoyable encounter, one with an underlying message or lesson that is served in a palatable way. Once we begin reading for ourselves, we turn to stories to bring clarity to a topic, brighten an experience, or learn something new.

Patients often have many stories of their own to tell, no book needed. At each story’s core are kernels of information that can help biopharmaceutical marketers, healthcare professionals, and other patients understand an individual’s challenges and triumphs as well as reveal unmet needs and gaps in care.

What can be learned from the tale of an active female patient with rheumatoid arthritis? As it turns out, quite a lot. The story of Lisa Hehn’s journey includes a lot of twists and turns, revelations, and teaching moments relevant to brand marketers. Patient stories resonate. They illustrate real-life experiences, pull at heartstrings, and humanize disease.

Lisa’s Journey

Six months after her second child was born by cesarean section, Lisa woke up with total body pain. As a young mother, she needed to be well in order to care for her children and keep up with the daily demands of an active lifestyle that included walking, dance classes, and regular gym visits.

Lisa set out on an odyssey to discover the root cause of her pain and find a solution, relying primarily on library research and the expertise of numerous physicians and other healthcare professionals. Her pain was managed with anti-inflammatories, steroids, and other medications that left her with serious side effects including stomach bleeds. She wore wrist braces to carry her children, and even added carpet padding to her slippers to soften the pain of each step she took.

Years passed before a specialist diagnosed Lisa with rheumatoid arthritis and ultimately prescribed a TNF inhibitor to manage her disease. The change for Lisa was life-altering, in fact, she’s said that the biologic gave her life.

Drugstore Aisle Opportunities for Specialty Brands

Patient narratives like Lisa’s can help specialty brand marketers pinpoint effective marketing strategies across various channels at every step of the journey. Although Lisa’s disease is now well managed, that was not always the case. Prior to her diagnosis, she frequently shopped at the pharmacy for OTC solutions to address unidentified pain and other ailments related to an unknown disease.

Once diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, prevention became a regular part of Lisa’s day. To minimize exposure to germs and viruses and thereby prevent illnesses, Lisa turned to the pharmacy for products including vitamins, over-the-counter pre-cold remedies, and hand sanitizers. In addition, as a mother, Lisa often shopped for health remedies and other products for her husband and children.

Patients gather information from various touchpoints and needs continue to evolve as a condition unfolds and treatments are prescribed. The pharmacy is a prime touchpoint because it’s a venue patients visit when they’re open to, and often seeking, health-related solutions and education.

At the beginning of the treatment continuum for a chronic disease such as RA, a patient may be most interested in the potential side effects of a particular therapy, whereas over time, concerns shift to more global issues including affordability and adherence.

Even now, Lisa seeks solutions for occasional health needs both related and unrelated to her main diagnosis. Though Lisa’s medication is filled through a specialty pharmacy and shipped to her home, she turns to retail and community pharmacies on a regular basis for a variety of needs.

Weaving the Pharmacy into a DTC Campaign

When handed a new diagnosis, and prescribed a new medication – whether traditional or specialty – patients often hunger for information, feedback, and guidance. Though each individual patient will seek information in different ways, knowledge is often gathered from multiple sources.

So how can the patient perspective help shape a DTC campaign? Listening to the patient experience can help brand marketers identify lingering needs and information gaps. In Lisa’s case, being prescribed a biologic nearly two decades ago left a lot of unanswered questions. She was starved for more information about RA but also how the biologic worked, how it would improve her symptoms, and what she could do to maximize its effect.

Though Lisa feels more medically savvy now out of necessity, at the time she would have liked access to educational content with patient-friendly language. To her, the pharmacy is well suited to disseminate simple messages about particular diseases and conditions.

When Lisa enters a pharmacy, she has health on her mind and she knows the onsite pharmacist is available to address questions and concerns. She finds the setting professional, comforting, and accessible for health-related messaging. In fact, if the option presented itself, she’d jump at the chance to pick up her specialty medication in the neighborhood pharmacy rather than receiving a shipment in her home.

Visiting the pharmacy is not a one-time event. Patients have different needs at each point along the way, affected by medication, age, and a variety of other factors. Patients with chronic diseases often continue to cope with a few minor symptoms, particularly at the beginning of a new treatment option. Therefore, the pharmacy can be a vehicle for driving patients to other resources such as a comprehensive disease website or online tools to help manage the disease burden.

Build Customer Awareness at the Pharmacy Level

With shrinking budgets and increased scrutiny of traditional DTC advertising, marketing tactics need to be more targeted, more effective, and less expensive. Specialty pharma marketers in particular are tasked with learning about the people taking their products, and that includes uncovering their needs. Who can clearly define patient needs and wants better than the patient himself?

Listening to patients can help marketers identify the best messaging approach before creating a branded shelf aid in the pharmacy or creating a magazine advertisement. Targeted products for specific populations, like RA for example, require a targeted marketing plan even though the number of patients affected by the disease is large. In some cases, the patient pool prescribed specialty medications is quite small which requires a more focused messaging approach.

Patients rely on specialty pharmacies to dispense specialty medications; however, the same patients are also regularly stopping by retail pharmacies. In fact, these patients may spend even more time in drugstore aisles than the average consumer. It’s a moment in time when the patients have their own health concerns – and likely that of a child, parent, or spouse as well – top of mind.

The pharmacy is an appropriate setting to deliver strong messages to patients while they’re looking to improve their health. Drugstore aisles are a proven platform to reach patients with targeted and specific information that helps establish a close link and provide the support needed. In-store campaigns can also open the door to other media channels, driving the patient to continue the brand experience. Integrated programs that include multiple touchpoints such as mobile and internet reinforce messaging found in store aisles.

The Next Powerful Patient Story Awaits

Marketers hope the messages they develop motivate patients to take action. Some patients may respond positively to information about how a newly marketed product differs from those that have been available for years. Another patient type may want to be informed in order to open a conversation with a pharmacist or physician. The communication’s value and credibility increases exponentially by having a healthcare professional available in-store. Patients can easily discuss questions and concerns with a pharmacist and in some cases, a nurse practitioner or physician assistant.

We’ve all heard of the cardiologist who has an epiphany about what a patient truly needs once he himself has had to endure triple bypass surgery. When patients share real-life experiences of their diagnoses, it’s the closet way to feel their pain and see their struggle without actually having the disease ourselves. Keeping real-life patient stories in mind can elevate a marketing campaign’s effectiveness and ensure the product and patient develop a genuine and worthy connection.

 

 

 

Kathleen Bonetti

DTC-In-Perspective by Bob EhrlichUncategorized

DTC in Perspective: PhRMA Gets Bold

February 3, 2017 0

This week many drug CEOs met with President Trump to discuss pricing and innovation. In just two weeks Mr. Trump has sat down with a number of business leaders to push domestic investment in job creation. He pushed the drug makers to build factories here and get control of drug prices.

In return Trump promised to promote speedy approvals at FDA following his early push across industries to reduce regulations hampering business growth. Based on drug stock prices after the meeting ended it seemed to go well. Mr. Trump wants to love drug companies but to continue that fond view he asks for lower prices and domestic job creation as part of the deal. He seemed to be willing to find ways to lower prices without a heavy handed price negotiation through Medicare. Mr. Trump is not surprisingly making industry uneasy while at the same time offering rewards for cooperation.

Bob Ehrlich
“I applaud PhRMA and Y&R for going boldly in their ad.”
-Bob Ehrlich

The drug companies know that having a public image that is suffering, with both parties in Congress willing to stick it to them on price, and a President saying they get away with murder is a risky environment. So in that context the drug lobby premiered a new television campaign pushing its commitment to drug research. The ad was created by Y&R New York.

The new GoBoldly spot is very different from past PhRMA efforts. Traditionally ads plugging drug makers were kind of clichéd with stories about caring people working tirelessly to save lives. It is not that the ads were portraying the wrong message, just that they were executed in an ineffective way. The new spot also shows researchers hard at work but does it in an attention getting manner.

The ad uses the well known Dylan Thomas poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” and adapts it to a drug research context. Read by a British voice over actor the spot has serious stopping power. It shows researchers not accepting failure as they go boldly to find cures. It is impossible to ignore when it comes on. What is very different is that the audio voice over is only the poem, while all the drug research copy is on the supers. It is a very dramatic portrayal.

Whether it will change attitudes about drug companies is hard to predict but it will get awareness. A great television ad is a start but hopefully this campaign is only the first part of a prolonged consumer effort to change attitudes. A print, radio, and web campaign is also in the mix.

That media and PR effort should address price. Americans already believe drug makers invent needed cures. This type of ad is going to get noticed but also prompt the skeptical query about price. When the President says drug makers must lower price, and Congress, consumerists, insurers, and providers agree, even a great ad is only just a start.

I applaud PhRMA and Y&R for going boldly in their ad execution. Shunning the usual voice over announcer saying how dedicated drug companies are and instead trying a breakthrough creative approach is a nice change. The drug makers have some explaining to do beyond their efforts to find cures. Telling Americans that great research costs a lot is a hard sell given Canadians and Europeans get the benefits at prices 30-50% less.

Trump may be on to something that perhaps creating thousands of new manufacturing jobs might help make higher prices a bit more palatable. I think drug makers know that Trump and other constituencies are looking for more than the usual explanations on how research is costly. Trump understands that cutting development costs in terms of approval times means more sales under patent protection and more room to deal on price. I sense that he will be dogged in ensuring that Americans see a tangible price benefit to his regulation easing.

Trump knows the art of cajoling. While many see him as bullying I think CEOs know he is just posturing to get a good deal.

Bob Ehrlich

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DTC in Perspective: FDA Tells Otezla and Toujeo Tone it Down

December 16, 2016 0

The arbitrary reviewers at FDA have decided that Otezla and Toujeo have music that is disturbing the peace. They have knocked on the walls of Celgene and Sanofi by issuing letters saying their television ads violate the law. How do they know they broke the law?

The beauty of the FDA system is they decide what is distracting. They don’t need to have any objective consumer based evidence of distracting music or rapid scene cuts. I have no doubt these ads pump up the music and fun. The problem, for all of us doing DTC is these two ads are fairly routine for DTC and similar ones have been on air for years. The letters are surprising and must represent some internal decision to get tough. Maybe they are being criticized for lax enforcement because the number of warning letters and untitled letters have come down.

Bob Ehrlich
“I do not think much of FDA’s evaluative process.”
-Bob Ehrlich

So, they decide to force the drug maker and agency to pull the ad, spend a small fortune re-shooting or re-editing. Judge, jury and executioner. Nice system. Evidence, they don’t need no stinking evidence.

I have seen these ads for months and never once did I think, wow, these ads are distracting and must violate a host of FDA regulations. I guess any ad with music and happy people is now under the scrutiny of FDA reviewers, who apparently have decided to crack down on happy people dancing. I know some in Congress want to go after happy DTC people having sex, but I digress.

As you can tell I do not think much of FDA’s evaluative process. These type of ads have been in vogue for years for many brands. So how slow and low must the music be, how slow the cuts from scene to scene, how long must the supers be? Is dancing limited to one actor, two? None of us know because FDA can decide what is a violation. I am sure Celgene and Sanofi can discuss it with FDA before the sentence is carried out. They have as much chance of a reversal as appealing to a North Korean court after insulting the great leader.

FDA should be forced to have real quantitative research data that supports what they say in their letters. Maybe at the very least a panel of consumers can be brought in to screen ads FDA thinks are problematic. I urge that some system of evaluation be added that can be more objective than a single reviewer. I know the reviewers believe they are acting fairly. I am sure they are bright, hard working folks just trying to do right. But they are arbitrary and inconsistent. That makes it difficult for drug makers to predict how they might react to an ad that is upbeat. For drug makers, what they need is consistency just like we want in an umpire or referee.

Maybe this is FDA getting their last regulatory licks in before the new Trump sheriff comes to town. More letters can be expected if this is how they will approach DTC ad review. Even after 20 years in DTC, the FDA can still surprise me.

Bob Ehrlich

DTC-In-Perspective by Bob EhrlichUncategorized

DTC in Perspective: Ad Age Article Cites Rx Fear Mongering

September 16, 2016 1

The latest critical DTC story just appeared in Ad Age on 9/12. It deserves comment because it seems off base.  In the title it says big pharma is using terror tactics to scare up sales. The crux of the story is how drug companies are shifting to creative approaches using scare tactics in their ads.

The article cites several examples in the vaccine area for meningitis, whooping cough, anaphylactic shock, and HPV. I take issue with the tone of the article that drug companies are taking a new approach that scares people. These vaccines are meant to prevent life threatening illness and the consequences of not vaccinating can be deadly.

Bob Ehrlich
“There is no new trend to using scare tactics.”
-Bob Ehrlich

The reporter says that drug ads used to be more cheerful. I guess that is referring to beach scenes, mountains, wheat fields that many had used to show satisfied patients. There were such ads but the idea that drug ads have evolved from cheerful to scary is false. There were ads for drugs in the 90’s that showed wheat fields and others that showed more somber scenes meant to be scary. Ads today also vary greatly from cheery to somber.

Drug ads are meant to motivate discussion with doctors. A scary disease caused by failure to get a vaccine deserves a sober assessment of the situation. Showing a person dealing with a life threatening allergy shows reality. Meningitis can kill, and HPV can cause cancer. Advertising deadly consequences is meant to be scary. The ads referred to as cheerful were those for conditions that were bothersome, but not deadly, such as allergy ads.

The writer, citing industry experts, says that drug companies are using scare tactics as a way to justify high prices. While EpiPen may be high priced, no one can dispute that a child that cannot breathe from an allergic reaction needs a rapid solution. Price has nothing to do with the advertising showing the dire consequences of being without the EpiPen. Would Mylan make a cheerful ad if the drug cost $100 vs. $500?

Drug ads are meant to motivate action. Showing what can happen when not vaccinated is not fear mongering. I have been reviewing DTC ads for over 20 years and there is no new trend to using scare tactics.

Ads have always reflected the seriousness of the disease treated by the drug. Toe fungus and seasonal allergy commercials can have a lighter tone than HIV or heart failure ads. While it is true that many of the ads cited do scare people, there is no happy way to say Meningitis shots are needed. I do not support unjustified fear based ads. I do not agree that any of the current ads are fear mongering or falsely amplifying the consequences of non-treatment.

There are more vaccine ads on the air now than in the past. That could be why the author sees this as a trend in advertising fear. Today DTC ads reflect a wide variety of creative devices that run the gamut of emotions. Fear is one of those emotions used but is certainly not new or a tactic to justify premium prices. Of course advertising analysis is somewhat subjective so those experts who see a shift towards fear can find examples to make that case. I would like to see more evidence before I can begin to agree that any shift has taken place.

 

Bob Ehrlich

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