Interestingly, in the US, most pharma marketing dollars are spent on its real targeted audience: physicians. Pharma spends about 8 times as much on trying to persuade docs as it does trying to persuade the public. In 2012 pharma spent >27 billion on marketing and >24 billion of that was targeting docs.
As we already know pharma spends far more on marketing than it does on R & D.
Isiscat2011 said
Sep 27, 2014
Dzdayscomin wrote:
I just saw it and they sure don't say much to get a person all excited to get treated....I guess I didn't think much of it.
Well, it isn't FDA approved yet, so they are limited as to what they can say. Right now they are in the first phase which is getting people thinking about being tested and being treated.
They won't need a hard sell, only a consistent presence. As with all pharma ads the messages are subtle enough (except for the obligatory disclaimer re: side effects they flash at the end). They don't need to knock people over the head with ideas about disease and death; the suggestion is plenty to scare the bejeezus out of most.
Dzdayscomin said
Sep 26, 2014
I just saw it and they sure don't say much to get a person all excited to get treated....I guess I didn't think much of it.
Isiscat2011 said
Sep 26, 2014
Tig56 wrote:
I agree that reaching the right demographics is key. But it might just scare those same narrow minded people to believe everything you've touched is something to be afraid of, thus perpetuating the stigma. I believe it takes more than some 30/60 second prime time commercial to get the right information out there. It helps to get people talking but I hope it's information is both accurate and not primarily based on the hopes of profit. That unfortunately has been a target of big Pharma and quite successfully I might add. If they want to discuss the new opportunities on the horizon, fine, but a prime time advertisement has limits IMO.
I was referring to the stigma about how HCV is acquired and the "type" of people who have it. Same thing that happened with AIDs. I'm sure you are right that many people will be fearful. Instilling fear will be part of the agenda to get people to test and treat. It could also make people more fearful of each other. According to estimates at least half of the HCV population doesn't know they are infected. That is something like 1.75 to 2 million+ people in the US.
I read an interesting article recently about how Pharma managed to get so many children taking various pharmaceuticals. Essentially, Pharma scared parents into believing that their children suffered from attention deficit or some other "disorder" when in many cases they were just children being children. New "disorders" have been popping up ever since pharmaceuticals became so obscenely profitable, and fear mongering is always present in the advertising, subtle though it may be.
I definitely have issues trusting Pharma but, unfortunately, they are the only game in town for potentially attaining SVR. Once you have substantial liver disease the stakes are too high to wait and see how it all plays out.
Tig said
Sep 26, 2014
I agree that reaching the right demographics is key. But it might just scare those same narrow minded people to believe everything you've touched is something to be afraid of, thus perpetuating the stigma. I believe it takes more than some 30/60 second prime time commercial to get the right information out there. It helps to get people talking but I hope it's information is both accurate and not primarily based on the hopes of profit. That unfortunately has been a target of big Pharma and quite successfully I might add. If they want to discuss the new opportunities on the horizon, fine, but a prime time advertisement has limits IMO.
Tig
Isiscat2011 said
Sep 26, 2014
Bust a move....lol
Strategic advertising. They bought air time during Dancing With the Stars, which has a substantial early baby boomer audience demographic. Advertising is so cheesy....and so effective.
I haven't seen ABBVie's commercials yet but showing the family man as an HCV sufferer, and raising the possibility that infection can occur via razors may actually help to destigmatize HCV, which is good for HCV patients and good for ABBVie. Imagine if they showed a heroin addict shooting up in some crack house. That is the image the media has presented for years. Now they are going to need to mainstream the disease to get more people testing and then treating for it.
I wonder what their commercials designated for MTV will look like. Wild parties in Vegas, indiscriminate sex....pan to some gangsta tattoos.
Tig said
Sep 26, 2014
I've seen it several times over the last week and wasn't impressed by them. One I saw was a man spending time with his family at a dinner I think. It went right into him mentioning how he knew he was infected and now with the new drugs coming available he was deciding to treat. There was also mention of his awareness of leaving his grooming items (razor) accessible, being heightened. I wasn't as impressed with it as I was the Gilead commercials. It seemed rather uninformative, but we know there must be something dangerous about our razors now... It may do more to fuel the stigma we all so love!
Tig
pl1952 said
Sep 26, 2014
I saw it too! It showed during Dancing with the Stars...
Scruffy said
Sep 26, 2014
Yep I saw it. I was expecting Gilead also. Looks like some one is getting ready to bust a move.
Mugsy said
Sep 25, 2014
Anybody else see the AbbVie commercial during the news tonight? It was talking about HepC treatment and I figured it was just a new Gilead ad.
Interestingly, in the US, most pharma marketing dollars are spent on its real targeted audience: physicians. Pharma spends about 8 times as much on trying to persuade docs as it does trying to persuade the public. In 2012 pharma spent >27 billion on marketing and >24 billion of that was targeting docs.
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/fact-sheets/2013/11/11/persuading-the-prescribers-pharmaceutical-industry-marketing-and-its-influence-on-physicians-and-patients
As we already know pharma spends far more on marketing than it does on R & D.
Well, it isn't FDA approved yet, so they are limited as to what they can say. Right now they are in the first phase which is getting people thinking about being tested and being treated.
They won't need a hard sell, only a consistent presence. As with all pharma ads the messages are subtle enough (except for the obligatory disclaimer re: side effects they flash at the end). They don't need to knock people over the head with ideas about disease and death; the suggestion is plenty to scare the bejeezus out of most.
I just saw it and they sure don't say much to get a person all excited to get treated....I guess I didn't think much of it.
I agree that reaching the right demographics is key. But it might just scare those same narrow minded people to believe everything you've touched is something to be afraid of, thus perpetuating the stigma. I believe it takes more than some 30/60 second prime time commercial to get the right information out there. It helps to get people talking but I hope it's information is both accurate and not primarily based on the hopes of profit. That unfortunately has been a target of big Pharma and quite successfully I might add. If they want to discuss the new opportunities on the horizon, fine, but a prime time advertisement has limits IMO.
Tig
Bust a move....lol
Strategic advertising. They bought air time during Dancing With the Stars, which has a substantial early baby boomer audience demographic. Advertising is so cheesy....and so effective.
I haven't seen ABBVie's commercials yet but showing the family man as an HCV sufferer, and raising the possibility that infection can occur via razors may actually help to destigmatize HCV, which is good for HCV patients and good for ABBVie. Imagine if they showed a heroin addict shooting up in some crack house. That is the image the media has presented for years. Now they are going to need to mainstream the disease to get more people testing and then treating for it.
I wonder what their commercials designated for MTV will look like. Wild parties in Vegas, indiscriminate sex....pan to some gangsta tattoos.
I've seen it several times over the last week and wasn't impressed by them. One I saw was a man spending time with his family at a dinner I think. It went right into him mentioning how he knew he was infected and now with the new drugs coming available he was deciding to treat. There was also mention of his awareness of leaving his grooming items (razor) accessible, being heightened. I wasn't as impressed with it as I was the Gilead commercials. It seemed rather uninformative, but we know there must be something dangerous about our razors now... It may do more to fuel the stigma we all so love!
Tig
I saw it too! It showed during Dancing with the Stars...
Yep I saw it. I was expecting Gilead also. Looks like some one is getting ready to bust a move.
Anybody else see the AbbVie commercial during the news tonight? It was talking about HepC treatment and I figured it was just a new Gilead ad.