DTC Marketing.(direct-to-consumer marketing by pharmaceutical manufacturers)(Brief Article)

Advertising Age, April, 2000 by Goetzl, David

Direct-to-consumer drug advertising has entered its next evolutionary phase. The banal images of smiley, happy people in physician-targeted advertising later translated into consumer ads are out. Star power is in. Pharmaceutical companies are now turning to celebrities, humor and other marketing techniques to help their ads stand out from the clutter.

The efforts are giving hard-to-remember product names such as cholesterol-lowering Zocor and hair-loss treatment Propecia top-of-mind awareness. "There are no prohibited areas anymore," says Anne Devereux, president-chief operating officer of Merkley Newman Harty Healthworks, New York, whose DTC clients include Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s diabetes drug Glucophage. "Clients are now comfortable enough with DTC that...

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