Hasta La Creative!

Grandma as a menacing wolf. Parents whose carelessness leads to cancer in their kids. A teenager hospitalized after sharing a seemingly innocent kiss. Halloween may still be over a month away, but Big Pharma is already out to scare consumers.

In recent months, several fear-instilling, often ominous commercials for medical devices, products and vaccines from drugmakers including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Mylan are airing in fairly heavy rotation. In GSK’s spot for whooping cough vaccine Boostrix, a sick grandmother is portrayed as a wolf holding a human infant. In Pfizer’s ad for Trumenba, a meningitis B vaccine, scenes in reverse order show how a boy celebrating at a birthday party ended up prone and pale in a hospital bed after his mom mistakenly thought he just had the flu.

“If you increase an individual’s feeling that they’re susceptible to a threat, and increase the perceived severity of that threat, people are more likely to take action,” said Adrienne Faerber, a lecturer at the Dartmouth Institute. “What are these advertisements but trying to get people to take action on things they probably aren’t thinking about.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com