Danica Patrick: NASCAR Driver, Super Model, Superbowl Lingerie Ad Model, & COPD Spokesperson All Rolled Into one!

John Mack

John Mack is an experienced executive with a background in pharmaceutical marketing communications, interactive technologies and medical privacy. His career has been dedicated to developing and applying best practices, enabling companies to do business more effectively, with greater ROI, and with enhanced trust. Mr. Mack provides leadership roles within many associations and councils focusing on health information, quality, privacy and adoption of technology to healthcare. He also blogs at www.pharmamkting.blogspot.com, and runs the popular Pharma Marketing Network.

Me and about 1000 other people who “follow” @boehringerus (Boehringer Ingelheim) on Twitter lately have been getting several messages like this one:

#4COPD robs people of their ability to breathe. Get screened 2 see if UR at risk & talk to your Dr about your results http://ow.ly/13Vkn

It’s part of a huge campaign to roll out the new “DRIVE4COPD” campaign that BI is sponsoring. BI is jamming its Twitter account with similar messages (see image on left, click to enlarge).

This is a huge social media campaign that involves not only Twitter but also Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. It features the NASCAR racecar driver Danica Patrick (see video below).

I just saw Danica a couple of nights ago on a TV show promoting the upcoming SuperBowl ads. She will appear in a lingerie ad, I believe. But she has all her clothes on in the DRIVE4COPD campaign, which is included in the photo montage below:

The campaign points out that “COPD is the 4th leading cause of death in the US” and “an estimated 24 million Americans are affected” and “over half of them don’t even know it.”

In fact, I didn’t know that I MAY have COPD! But thanks to the COPD POPULATION Screener™, which the DRIVE4COPD campaign urges every one to take (see the DRUVE4COPD Web site), I now know it and will talk to my doctor about it, which is the goal of DRIVE4COPD.

You too can find out if you MAY have COPD by taking a simple 5 question test! I had no doubt that I would score high enough to be at risk because:

1. During the past 4 weeks, I DID feel short of breath “a little of the time,” like when I had to shovel some snow, and
2. I DID cough up some “stuff,” such as mucus or phleg, but “only with occasional colds or chest infections,” and
3. I HAVE smoked at least 100 cigarettes in my ENTIRE LIFE, though I quit smoking about 30-40 years ago, and
4. I agree (but not STRONGLY agree) that I do less than I used to because of my breathing problems, and
5. I am a man of a certain age (but I won’t say how old).

This is not the first time that I have taken such a screening test without any idea who came up with the questions or how the answers determine whether or not you have a medical condition. In small print, however, I see that the COPD Population Screener is a trademark of QualityMetric Incorporated, which gets its data from surveys of patients as far as I can tell.

After taking the SCREENER, you can vote for which DRIVE4COPD Race Team Member (Danica, Bruce Jenner, Jim Belushi, Patty Loveless, or Michael Strahan) you want to win the “Race for the Missing Millons.” I don’t know exactly what that means, but guess who I voted for?

Regardless of the scientific validity of the COPD Screener, or the other tricks employed to get people involved, I think DRIVE4COPD is a worthy campaign even though BI may profit from it (BI markets Spiriva for the treatment of COPD).

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Danica Patrick: NASCAR Driver, Super Model, Superbowl Lingerie Ad Model, & COPD Spokesperson All Rolled Into one!