Janssen's new Prezcobix push urges HIV patients to share pics with their docs

An image from Janssen's Prezcobix campaign

Say cheese, bus shelter ad. Janssen's Prezcobix campaign advocates a new way for potential patients to talk to their doctors: Snap a picture and share it.

It's a new take on the old DTC-standard advice to "talk to your doctor." In this case, some outdoor ads for the new HIV med include the line, "Snap a picture and share it with your doctor to see if Prezcobix is right for you."

It's part of a campaign dubbed "Wisdom," which urges HIV patients not only to share pics with their physicians, but to share their insights about the disease. The national campaign includes digital and print, with outdoor ads running only in specific cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, Miami and New York.

For the "Wisdom" imagery, artist Sean Williams transformed photographs of real people into graphical images drawn with words and phrases describing patients' feelings about life with the disease. Think sentiments such as "I have to be my own advocate" and "HIV is just part of my story."

Williams created 12 English and 9 Spanish "typographic portraits" for the FCB Chicago-directed work, for use in the U.S. and South America, he wrote on his web page. The campaign began running earlier this year, and along with media includes using SMS to engage with Prezcobix patients in their daily lives.

Like the images, the phrases were inspired by real people, said Lisa Vaga, a spokeswoman for Janssen Therapeutics, a sister company of Johnson & Johnson's ($JNJ) Janssen Pharmaceuticals. "The Wisdom campaign focuses on helping people living with HIV tap their inner wisdom for the HIV journey," Vaga told FiercePharmaMarketing via email.

"We based the idea on the insight that managing HIV also requires information and support, from healthcare professionals as well as from others living with this disease," Vaga added. "What we found is that for people living with HIV, what others on the same journey have to share matters."

Prezcobix was approved by the FDA for treatment of HIV-I in January. It's a combination drug pairing Janssen's HIV fighter Prezista and Gilead Sciences' ($GILD) boosting agent Tybost. Tybost was also approved at the same time as the booster in another combination drug to treat HIV, Bristol-Myers Squibb's ($BMY) Evotaz.

- read the Prezcobix release
- see Sean Williams' ad images

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