Consumer Fraud | Pharma Marketer

If DTC Ads were Allowed in Picadilly Circus

Friday, May 8th, 2009

The next big thing, according to some of my Twitter pals, is interactive billboard ads such as this one for McDonald’s: You get the idea…stand across the circle (ie, circus) and strike up an appropriate pose making sure your head is correctly aligned with the action in the ad. Voila! you’ve got a nice souvenir shot to send home! Uh, I mean post on your FaceBook page. Now imagine if the UK allowed direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of Rx drugs and Pfizer created the first interactive billboard ad for Viagra! Here’s my vision of how it might look with someone posing in front — I can’t show you the animated version.

Posted in: Digital Marketing, Traditional Channels | 0 Comments »

Read the full story

GSK, the "Erroneous" 50% Discount Promise, and Consumer Fraud

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Wow! GSK just had a PR catastrophe! FiercePharma and other online news outlets earlier today published a press release from GSK (originally distributed through PRWeb) that said the company was offering a 50 percent discount on meds for U.S. patients who are uninsured “no matter a patient’s income level or whether he or she qualifies for public programs” ( see archive here ). I immediately tweeted the news via Twitter and a few of my 1200 or so Twitter pals retweeted (RT’d) and a few of THEIR friends RT’d and so on.

Posted in: Traditional Channels | 0 Comments »

Read the full story

New Sales Force Effectiveness Maxim: "Never Be Closing"

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

The ABC of sales, according to Alec Baldwin in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, is “Always Be Closing.” Baldwin’s character — Blake — is from “downtown” (ie, headquarters) and he won’t hear about “weak leads” as an excuse for not selling real estate in Florida to retire folk. See the scene in the YouTube clip at the end of this post (WARNING: Explicit language!).