In new TV ads, Pfizer is tackling two key concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first commercial addresses how people struggling with unemployment or insurance loss can get help paying for prescription medicines, while the second tackles the uncertainty and anxiety many people feel right now, assuring viewers that “science will win.”
The prescription TV ad, which debuted Tuesday, details the Pfizer prescription medicine assistance program along with income guidelines and the kinds of help patients can get to pay for Pfizer medicines. It ends with a directive to viewers to learn more at the website for Pfizer RxPathways.
The second commercial, launched last week, features working lab video along with real photos of Pfizer scientists with a voice-over that talks about the power of science.
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The narrator begins by saying: “At a time when things are uncertain, we turn to the most certain thing there is—science. Science can overcome diseases, create cures and yes, beat pandemics. It has before; it will again.”
While the video used in the ad is stock footage Pfizer had on hand—social distancing prevents shooting a new commercial—the photos of Pfizer scientists who appear at the end of the ad holding signs that read “Science Will Win” are real employees that work on vaccines and antiviral treatments.
Pfizer asked its scientists and researchers in its Groton, Connecticut, and Pearl River, New York, labs to send photos in real time from their work to put in the ad, a Pfizer spokesperson said in an email. The ads end with a thank-you note to all the scientists working in the company's labs and in labs around the world to end the health crisis.
“Our goal is that the message of hope ('Science Will Win') and help (Pfizer RxPathways) will be meaningful in the current environment,” she said.
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The ads will run on TV and on social media on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Along with the prescription help and messages of hope—Pfizer created a “thank you” ad to the men and women on the front lines and a social media explainer series featuring its experts—Pfizer previously announced that it would donate $40 million for both emergency relief funds and grants for the needs of healthcare workers involved the COVID-19 response.
Pfizer also joined with Eli Lilly and Merck to create a joint initiative that deploys employees with medical and lab expertise to volunteer with local healthcare systems.