It’s all the rage for superhero films: Bring together several fan favorite celebrities into one cinematic event. Pfizer is following Marvel and DC’s lead, bringing together its five most recent COVID commercial celebrities for a new ad promoting its booster.
Singer John Legend, professional soccer player Megan Rapinoe, singer Charlie Puth, TV personality Martha Stewart and pro football star Travis Kelce have all over the past year undertaken ads or promoted work for Pfizer specifically for its COVID vaccine and new booster.
Now, Pfizer is splicing their previous ad work together, with the celebs showing off their distinctive blue Band-Aids for their COVID shots in the company’s latest ad, “Got Yours?”
The narrator asks what this diverse set of American all-stars has in common: It is, of course, that they have all had their new Pfizer COVID booster.
There is nothing new here in terms of content: The opener sees shots from previous ads with the celebrities, and that continues to the end, when several of the celebrities show off their post-shot Band-Aids.
But the draw will be seeing all five celebrities in one place. Pfizer is releasing the 30-second spot as it aims to shore up its lagging COVID vaccine sales.
The pharma had, from 2020 until this year, seen tens of billions of dollars come pouring in for its COVID vaccines and drug Paxlovid. But, in a severe and sudden reversal of fortunes, those sales have all but dried up in 2023 as the pandemic turned into an endemic.
Just last month, Pfizer announced during its financial results for the third quarter it recorded a $5.6 billion charge for coronavirus-related inventory write-offs, as well as other charges, plus a $4.2 billion revenue reversal tied to the planned return of some 7.9 million Paxlovid doses from the U.S. government.
As a result of dwindling sales of its COVID franchise and these write-offs, Pfizer is looking to make drastic cuts worth $3.5 billion in annual costs by the end of 2024, including $1 billion expected this year.
It’s also looking to cull and/or move hundreds of workers from across multiple sites as part of this cost-cutting program. Right now, Pfizer could use all the star power it can muster.