Thursday, July 24, 2008

Lyrica Lightens Up, DTCwise

First, there was the suffering, sighing woman in the first DTC (direct to consumer) ad for Lyrica, a drug being marketed by Pfizer for the treatment of fibromyalgia, a painful syndrome that is not well understood. Here's the woman in that ad (see "Women Need More Love, Less Drugs"):


Then there was the "battered-woman" fibromyalgia disease awareness ad that attempted to portray how sufferers felt by showing bruised images of a woman who says something like "maybe if people saw me this way, they will believe that fibromyalgia is a real medical condition" (see "Battered Woman Imagery in Pfizer's New Fibromyalgia Ad"). I was not able to capture an image of the woman in that from my TV, so I used the following image to illustrate my point:

The newest DTC ad for Lyrica is considerably LIGHTER in that the battered, glum, lonely-looking, suffering woman image has been replaced with an older, but attractive woman obviously enjoying her vacation with what appears to be her husband! At last! An image more women can relate to! Here's a screen shot from the ad, which you can find on the Lyrica Web site:

Either the Pfizer ad agency has read my blog posts about negative portrayals of women in DTC ads and about the Lyrica woman who needs more love in her life or this sequence of imagery is a crafty "shock and awe" campaign culminating in a "surge" to win our hearts as well as our minds!

I like to think it's the former rather than the latter. Ad agencies can't be THAT crafty!

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:46 AM

    I know you want to pat yourself on the back for this one (and yes, Pfizer does read your blog), but it takes a bit loner than a few weeks to shoot, edit and get legal approval for ads. Sorry. This would have been in the works for a while.

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  2. Anonymous12:23 PM

    Just what the world needs - another DTC ad with smiling, happy people meant to make us think about how great our lives could be. This could be the commerical for any health condition or pharma product. At least thier battered women ads created some kind of reaction - isn't that the point of advertising/marketing? Good luck on your continued crusade to rid the world of DTC of anything unique...

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  3. Anonymous12:33 PM

    Is it just me or did they take 35 year olds and dye their hair gray to make them seem like super fit, healthy older people? And doesn't this woman look like an Andorian from the original Star Trek Series?

    ReplyDelete

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