This has stood out from my first day in pharmaland as a big difference between health and consumer. The worry that the marketing of a new drug might imply the HCP has been doing it wrong up to now and the (ad) concept might offend their sense of professional pride. And why do we worry... Continue Reading →
Making a land grab
Here's a scary thought. Coke isn't actually the real thing. It's not even happiness. And how about this: People are loving lots of things, only one of them is MacDonalds. You can travel yourself interesting with Thomson holidays or even Thomas Cook. And you could probably find a supermarket where you're thinking every little helps... Continue Reading →
The nursing home that got creative
In 1991 in the town of New Berlin in upstate New York, Bill Thomas, then a young doctor of just 31, who had previously really only spent time in A&E, took over as medical director of Chase memorial nursing home. When he arrived he was dismayed with the reality of life there, despair oozed from... Continue Reading →
The power of doing nothing
There's a story about an agency boss who was strolling the creative corridors one day and noticed all the creatives were not actually working but staring out the window, flicking through magazines or playing scrunched-up-paper-bin-basketball. He immediately returned to his desk and had his secretary type a memo. It read : "Dear creatives, please don't... Continue Reading →
The North Pond Hermit™
For thirty years the legend of The North Pond Hermit in central Maine continued to grow. He remained unseen but his presence was felt everywhere. During the night things would go missing from local houses, never money, but food, clothing, books and oddly - BBQ gas canisters. The only evidence left behind was occasional wood... Continue Reading →
Commiting Brandicide.
Imagine this scenario: After ten years of marketing an orange soda drink, say one that has become one of the most famous brands in the world, the patent runs out and another, almost exactly the same, orange soda drink is launched by a rival manufacturer at 25p cheaper a can. The company that manufactures it... Continue Reading →
A couple of weeks ago Adweek ran an article that began thus: The mighty Empire has fallen … thanks to some yogurt. Deutsch/LA's 2011 Super Bowl spot "The Force" for Volkswagen, which enjoyed an astonishing 41-month reign as the most shared ad of all time, has finally been dethroned—by Activia and the World Food Programme's... Continue Reading →
The other Great War
In this week of remembrance and solemn thanks for the heroes of the Great War, who died on the fields of Flanders exactly a hundred years ago, I thought I might touch on a vastly inappropriate parallel: the unimportant war that we fight as creatives every day. (If this blog dies in research, sod it...it's... Continue Reading →
Have the VMAs gone to the dogs or cats?
If you thought Pharma adland was a bit of a niche area, some of you will have experienced the niche within the niche that is Veterinary pharma. Now that is niche. That is a Rolls Royce Cor-niche That's what Sean Connery calls the airport when you visit Cannes. And to a certain extent the leaps... Continue Reading →
It’s not an ad, it’s a sales rep.
At the gleaming offices of PHARMACOMGLOM on the outskirts of Slough, it was set to be an exciting start to the week. The final candidate for the vacancy in the sales representative department was waiting in reception. He wasn't reading up on the company in the strategically positioned brochures like all the others had, he... Continue Reading →