Healthy Skepticism Library item: 766

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: news

Bull Riding and Cancer Treatment
New York Times 2005 Jan 25

Full text:

It is not difficult to guess which types of marketers would want to sponsor the sport of professional bull riding. The list would no doubt include companies that sell products like jeans, boots, cowboy hats, belt buckles, trucks, truck-bed liners, cancer treatments . . .

Cancer treatments? Yes, in a new wrinkle in sports marketing, the Theragenics Corporation, which makes TheraSeed, a device that can be used in the treatment of prostate cancer, is expanding a sponsorship agreement with Professional Bull Riders, which is based in Colorado Springs, Colo. The agreement, which was tested last fall in San Antonio, Tex., is being rolled out in 2005 to six to nine major markets.

The sponsorship, which is costing Theragenics about $2.5 million, includes television, radio and print advertising; promotions at Professional Bull Riders events; endorsements by two popular athletes; a public relations campaign; and $150,000 in donations from Theragenics to the Resistol Relief Fund, which assists injured bull riders. In addition, fans attending the more than 30 Professional Bull Riders events scheduled this year around the country will be given blue ribbons, symbolizing prostate cancer awareness.

Peddling brands, particularly those aimed at men, by associating them with sports is one of the oldest ploys in the Madison Avenue playbook.The Theragenics sponsorship represents the expansion of the ranks of sports marketers from longtime mainstays like airlines, automakers, brewers and brokers.

The health-care and medical category represents a growing source of support for sports. Witness the decision by the Bayer/GlaxoSmithKline partnership that sells Levitra, the prescription drug for treating erectile dysfunction, to become a sponsor of the National Football League.

“A couple of years ago, I was flat bored one night and heard an ad on the radio that the Professional Bull Riders was coming to Atlanta for the first time ever,” says M. Christine Jacobs, the chairwoman, president and chief executive of Theragenics, which is based in the Atlanta suburb of Buford, Ga. “I thought I’d put on a pair of jeans and go see what it’s all about.”

“I go to the event, and there’s 35,000 people, a large number of them men over the age of 40,” she adds. “I came back to the office and said to my assistant, ‘Get me information on the P.B.R.’”

“I had always suspected, but never known for sure,” she says, “that the message about our treatment for prostate cancer had never reached the heartland,” where bull riding is an increasingly popular sport.

Indeed, after one of the marketing consultants for Theragenics, the Haystack Group, conducted a survey, Ms. Jacobs says, the data showed “that if you came two to three miles inland from the coasts and polled people for their knowledge of TheraSeed, there isn’t any.”

Haystack and Match of Marietta, Ga., the advertising agency for Theragenics, proposed the San Antonio test, during which 37 percent of the callers to a Theragenics call center seeking information about TheraSeed asked about or mentioned the sponsorship, Ms. Jacobs says.Those results led to the expansion of the sponsorship to the additional markets this year.

“We saw the power and the pull these athletes have with men of all ages,” says Bonnie Ulman, president of Haystack, something that would be invaluable in “trying to get across the message that when it comes to your health, don’t do nothing.”

Her reference was to research showing that many men, when diagnosed with prostate cancer, will not seek treatment because they want to avoid surgery. TheraSeed is a device, the size of a grain of rice, for treating certain localized types of prostate cancer in procedures that are intended to be less invasive than surgery.

Another benefit of being a sponsor of bull riding, Ms. Ulman says, is that it “is a place we can stand out,” compared with bigger sports like baseball, football or basketball, which are already heavily sponsored by far larger marketers.

“It is a different way to reach men,” she adds, “through a sport that is emerging as a powerhouse.”

The test campaign last fall used the bull rider Owen Washburn as a spokesman. For the broader effort this year, he is being joined by Lee Akin, the top-ranked black rider on the P.B.R. circuit; one reason for the addition of Mr. Akin is to target the TheraSeed message to African-American men, who die from prostate cancer at twice the rate of whites, according to a recent study in The American Journal of Public Health. Both athletes wear shirts and vests emblazoned with the blue ribbon and the TheraSeed brand.

In the television commercial created by Match, which will also be expanded into the new markets, Mr. Washburn is shown getting ready for a ride. “By the time Owen Washburn finishes his ride,” an announcer says in a laconic, cowboy-type voice, “another man will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.”

After reading the toll-free number that viewers can call for information about TheraSeed, Mr. Washburn is seen coming out of the chute on the back of a bull. “Owen would fill you in,” the announcer says, “but he’s kind of busy right now.”

The commercial was shot by a Chicago director, Dennis Manarchy, “who’s known for dramatic story-telling,” says B.A. Albert, the founder and creative director at Match in Atlanta, adding: “It was intentionally done to talk to men with a masculine tone of voice. It’s pretty scary business for men when they’re diagnosed with prostate cancer. We want to appeal to their ‘inner warrior,’ as Bonnie says.”

The format of depicting Mr. Washburn in action was no accident, Ms. Albert says, because “we wanted to use him in the best light, doing what he knows how to do, rather than as speaking on camera.”

“He’s not an actor,” she adds. “He’s a bull rider.” Match is hoping to produce an additional commercial, Ms. Albert says, featuring Mr. Akin.

The six markets that will start to see the campaign this year, Ms. Jacobs says, are: Anaheim, Calif.; Dallas; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; and Seattle/Tacoma. It may also be expanded into three other markets, she adds, which are Colorado Springs, Memphis and St. Louis.

“I can’t ever compete with Ford, I can’t ever compete with Wrangler,” Ms. Jacobs says, naming two bigger P.B.R. sponsors, “but I think we can help TheraSeed get a name for itself and make a difference.”