Pfizer: The old scare tactics won’t work this time
Were you impressed by Pfizer’s announcement last week that the company would give away 70 of its most widely prescribed drugs to those who lost jobs? Sure, the program — called MAINTAIN, or Medicines Assistance for Those who Are in Need — has caveats. To receive the drugs, individuals must show:
- That they have been unemployed since Jan. 1
- That they no longer have prescription drug insurance
- Must prove that they cannot pay for their medications, and
- That they were taking a medication listed under the program for at least three months prior to losing their jobs
You should be impressed. As Dorothy Wetzel, former VP-consumer marketing at Pfizer and now a co-founding partner of health-care ad agency, Extrovertic said in Advertising Age (registration required):
It’s probably worth more than $100 million in free advertising… Think of the goodwill, think of the brand advocates they’re creating by providing these medicines. You have somebody who’s going to say ‘I lost my job but I can still get my Lipitor for free? I’m going to tell everybody.’
It’s brilliant public relations and the beginning of a pro-Pfizer grassroots initiative in my opinion. As reported in Medical Marketing & Media, Pfizer has just hired onetime Gore advisor Gregory Simon to head its global policy efforts, the man Nature Magazine named “Ten People To Watch” citing him as one of “a handful of influential people who quietly keep the wheels of biomedical science turning.”
Given that the old scare tactics like “Harry and Louise” [link to original commercial] from the 1984 attempt at health care reform won’t work today, getting out in front of public opinion just makes sense. And demonstrates that you don’t have to have “Twitter” in the headline to make big news.
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