Dr. Robert Jarvik (photo) has already drawn the Congressional fisheye: A committee is questioning the artificial heart pioneer's role as pitchman for the Pfizer cholesterol drug Lipitor. The ads show Jarvik in outdoor settings, endorsing Lipitor as a cholesterol-lowering strategy "when diet and exercise aren't enough." In one commercial, he's rowing a racing boat across a mountain lake. But, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce wonders, is Jarvik qualified to endorse a drug? He's not licensed to practice medicine. Nor, apparently, is he able to row. Pfizer's ad agency hired a stunt double to zip across that lake. "He's about as much an outdoorsman as Woody Allen," one Jarvik collaborator told The New York Times.
- read the Times article
- check out this report on DTC ads in the Los Angeles Times