Bristol-Myers Squibb has teamed up with ABC's "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts to spotlight ordinary yet extraordinary people who’ve risen above and beyond major challenges.
BMS is sponsoring Roberts’ new media foray, a digital documentary series called “Thriver Thursdays” that’s drawing on a social media initiative by the same name that she announced two months ago.
A two-time cancer patient who prefers the word thriver to survivor, Roberts celebrated her six-year bone marrow transplant “birthday” in September. To mark the date, she encouraged people to use the hashtag #thriverthursday to share stories about how they not only survived life-altering circumstances, but continued to persevere, achieve goals and surpass them. Roberts’ production company Rock’n Robin Productions is now working to turn some of those into the digital series, which will run for six weeks.
The first episodes aired online Nov. 15 with trailblazing fashion model Winnie Harlow, the first model with the autoimmune skin condition vitiligo who will walk the runway in the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show in December.
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Bristol-Myers Squibb is only involved as a sponsor. Its brand name appears onscreen once during the video stories superimposed in a simple “sponsored by” tag.
“We’re incredibly inspired by Robin Roberts’ mission to support and celebrate thrivers in our community—people who achieve despite life-altering circumstances,” Bristol-Myers said in a statement to FiercePharma. “We’re proud to sponsor her new series, ‘Thriver Thursday,’ because the spirit of the series is in line with our mission which is to help patients prevail over serious diseases.”
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Roberts thanked the pharma in a Twitter post on launch day, writing: “I want to thank the entire @bmsnews family ... I’ve enjoyed going to your headquarters and meeting such wonderful, caring people! Thank you for helping us profile these incredible individuals who are making their message.of hope and perseverance.”