Boehringer Ingelheim is reaching new high notes with the latest addition for its "Breathless" campaign as it takes to the stage with celebrity vocal coach Eric Vetro and spokesperson and Yankees legend Bernie Williams to raise awareness for interstitial lung disease (ILD).
Williams, a Latin Grammy nominee who has worked with Boehringer for five years, lost his father to a lung scarring disease in 2001 and became involved in Breathless to honor his father’s legacy. Boehringer sells Ofev for certain lung diseases.
After releasing a new song late last year attached to the Breathless campaign, Williams is back. This time, he's teaming up with Vetro to launch "Tune In To Lung Health"—a program designed to raise awareness for ILD and “bring to life how music and breathing can help people cope with the mental, emotional and physical burden of ILD,” Boehringer said in a press release.
ILD is an umbrella term that encompasses more than 200 types of rare diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), chronic fibrosing interstitial lung diseases and systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD). These diseases cause lung scarring, which may make it difficult to breathe.
The campaign includes a four-part video series with breathing exercises that Vetro leads, as well as firsthand accounts from people living with an ILD and patients using those breathing exercises to help with their condition. Vetro and Williams have also curated streaming playlists featuring some of their favorite mood-boosting tunes.
Boehringer's Breathless campaign program was originally developed with the goal of raising awareness for ILDs, particularly IPF and SSc-ILD, conditions for which Ofev is approved.
Since then, it has branched out into different sub-campaigns including late last year the "Breathless Ballad Challenge" which in December saw Williams and multiplatinum recording artist Jordin Sparks debut a new song called "Breath of Life (Para Don Berna)" with lyrics written by the winner of the songwriting Breathless Ballad Challenge that the pharma sent out to the public.
Ofev has a long and illustrious marketing history, taking our #FierceMadness ad championship in 2019. The winning platform was built around the story of a boxer and his father who has IPF.
The drug nabbed its latest approval in 2020 for chronic fibrosing ILDs with a progressive phenotype. It’s one of the company’s biggest-selling drugs, bringing in more than $2.3 billion last year.