I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV. That approach has put pharma in the doghouse before--remember when Pfizer ($PFE) canned its Lipitor ads featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik? But now, here's a new question. What about, "I'm not a patient, but I play one in a promo campaign for doctors"?
As the Pharma Marketing Blog reports, one of the few industry campaigns to snap up a gold Lion at the Lions Health ad festival this week was an Australian effort from McCann Health. Subject: Johnson & Johnson's ($JNJ) anti-inflammatory drug Simponi. Approach: patient storytelling, a big buzz-phrase these days in pharma advertising.
Thing is, the patient whose story features in the Simponi "Cate" campaign wasn't real. The story was a well-crafted visual narrative designed to show how easy it is for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers to dose themselves--something that's not pleasant for users of some RA therapies. And to illustrate how well it works, of course. Read more from FiercePharmaMarketing >>