Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17299

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Electronic Source

Rockoff JD
Why That Guy on TV Touting Lipitor Could Be Your Neighbor
The Wall Street Journal Blog 2010 Feb 25
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/02/25/why-that-guy-on-tv-touting-lipitor-could-be-your-neighbor/

Full text:

Health Blog readers aren’t the only folks who realize the influence of the Internet. So do drug marketers. They have taken notice of the Web’s impact on people’s preferences and are adjusting pharmaceutical advertising accordingly, today’s Wall Street Journal reports.

Hence the small but growing number of advertisements for prescription medicines that feature the stories of real patients – like the one pictured at the right, for Pfizer’s Chantix – rather than using celebrity endorsers or gauzy voice-overs to pitch their products.

Pfizer, the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company, began running patient testimonials with ads for cholesterol fighter Lipitor, after spots featuring artificial heart inventor Robert Jarvik were attacked. (The controversy led to congressional investigations and guidelines.)

Pfizer is now using patient stories to sell smoking-cessation therapy Chantix. “The role of the peer is important because it really provides a positive example,” said Jim Sage, a Pfizer marketing official.

Market research has shown pharmaceutical ad folks the power of peer influence, drug marketers say. The sick are relying more and more on the experiences and recommendations of fellow patients, rather than heeding the endorsements of celebrities or pitches of companies.

It’s both a sign and a symptom of the fact that discussions of drugs are flourishing on online message boards, chat rooms and social-networking sites. And even the Health Blog.