From price gouging to tax evasion, the pharmaceutical industry has made some pretty hefty missteps in recent history, leaving many Americans with a bad taste in their mouths—one that can’t be washed down with a tall glass of water.
So, drug maker Pfizer has set out to repair the industry’s crumbling reputation, without even naming a single product.
Huge launched a new spot promoting Pfizer’s “Get Old” initiative, launched in 2012, entitled “Commencement Day.”
“Commencement Day” uses the familiar trope of summer graduation as a way to use “cultural experiences usually associated with youth to challenge conventional views of aging.” The effort is built around new Harris Poll research which found that “as people get older, the more open they are to experiencing new beginnings.” As one example, most millenials (95 percent) said that under 40 was the best time to get married, compared with 62 percent of Gen Xers and 60 percent of Baby Boomers. The spot shows an elderly couple making the decision to get married, interspersed with a commencement speech reminding viewers that “The moments that define you never stop, and the most rewarding ones may be just ahead.” The spot ends with the message “Every day is your commencement day,” followed by the unfortunate tagline, “Get ready. Get set. Get old.”
The “Commencement Day” spot is housed on the updated GetOld.com site, along with stories supporting the initiative, including that of Pfizer colleague and ovarian cancer survivor Alicia Dellario, “who is dedicated to inspiring others to live life to the fullest, no matter what challenges they face.”
“Through Get Old, we, at Pfizer, want to help people understand that each stage of life is an opportunity to begin again and experience ‘firsts,’” said Sally Susman, executive vice president, Corporate Affairs at Pfizer. “As our longevity continues to increase it is more important than ever to stay healthy, to live well, and that’s why Pfizer has always been supportive of healthy aging.”
This minute-long BBDO spot for Viagra is, apparently, the brand’s first to show only a woman, and its first to use the word “erection” outside of the description of side effects.
Here, an attractive woman in a slinky blue dress poses on what appears to be an unmade bed or some sort of mattress, assuring us, “Plenty of guys have this issue—not just getting an erection, but keeping it.” She’s got an British accent, so you know she means business. An agency rep says it’s a new direction designed to focus on the partner’s point of view.
That’s a big change from past campaigns, which told men’s stories and kept women in the background, if they were shown at all. “The intensifying of the marketing message makes sense, considering Viagra’s patent expires in three years, along with its monopoly,” NBC’s Today points out.
Viagra ads used to be about as chaste and subdued as they could be while advertising boner pills. For example, this spot from a couple of years ago keeps the focus on some guy and his sailboat. No women in that dude’s crew. Not even a mermaid off the starboard bow.
That traditional level of restraint makes the new ad (also awash in nautical imagery, by the way), well … stick out, and not in an altogether positive way. It feels tacky, and could almost be viewed as an exercise in objectification: Take Viagra, and claim your prize!
Plus, some elements seem like overkill. She says “erection.” Do we really need the ship masts in the distance, rising straight and tall? Or that long pier jutting into the briny deep? And flagpoles planted in the sand?
If someone asked you what sort of business would spark the next social media trend, odds are that the word pharmaceuticals would not come to mind.
Pfizer hopes to defy convention by capitalizing on its “Get Old” campaign–launched back in 2012–and introducing “FOGO“: fear of getting old.
The company thought that the initiative, intended to stimulate conversations on subjects like the challenges of aging, needed a boost. As reported in The New York Times, they traded original AOR SS&K in an effort to go HUGE.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Sometimes experience proves more powerful than youth. That’s certainly true in this new long-form spot for Pfizer’s Centrum from Leo Burnett in Chicago, which pairs middle-aged basketball players against a group of twenty-something guys.
We won’t spoil what happens, but you can probably guess.
Yep, it’s not surprising that in a film made for a multi-vitamin, we’d see the older gents have still got game. Though that doesn’t make it any less entertaining to watch the young punks get schooled.
The film was shot in Goat Park in Harlem and has already garnered half a million views online. Maybe the appeal of watching real people play basketball has something to do with it. Or maybe we’re a bit sick of the soccer.
Credits below.
CREDITS
Client: Pfizer/Centrum
Agency: Leo Burnett Chicago
Ad or Campaign: Stay on Top of Your Game
Chief Creative Officer: Susan Credle
Executive Creative Director: Jeanie Caggiano
Creative Directors: Amanda Butts, Nuno Ferreira
Associate Creative Directors: Dave Derrick, Stephanie Simpson
Creative Team: Roberto Blanco, Javier Valle, Lauren Wetula
Digital Strategist: Ian Beacraft
Executive Producer: Juan Woodbury
Producer: Mark Phan
Production Company: Greenpoint Pictures
Directors: Michael Kuhn & Niles Roth
Executive Producer: Tatiana Rudzinski
Producer: JP Bouchard
VFX/SPX: Utopic
Editorial: Utopic
Editor: Tim Kloehn
Music Company: Jira Productions
Composer: Dejion Madison
Director of Photography: Nate Corbin
Life without cigarettes? You’ll barely notice a difference.
Advertising Agency: FabraQuinteiro Comunicações, São Paulo, Brazil
Creative Directors: Paschoal Fabra Neto, Marcelo Aragão
Art Director / Copywriter: Bruno Cirello
Photographer: Getty Images
Image Retouch: Fernando Vido
Published: December 2007
Life without cigarettes? You’ll barely notice a difference.
Advertising Agency: FabraQuinteiro Comunicações, São Paulo, Brazil
Creative Directors: Paschoal Fabra Neto, Marcelo Aragão
Art Director / Copywriter: Bruno Cirello
Photographer: Getty Images
Image Retouch: Fernando Vido
Published: December 2007
Life without cigarettes? You’ll barely notice a difference.
Advertising Agency: FabraQuinteiro Comunicações, São Paulo, Brazil
Creative Directors: Paschoal Fabra Neto, Marcelo Aragão
Art Director / Copywriter: Bruno Cirello
Photographer: Getty Images
Image Retouch: Fernando Vido
Published: December 2007
Check out the microsite for the video as well: http://outsmartcigarettes.com.au/
Advertising Agency: Ursa Communications, Australia
Executive Creative Director: Denis Mamo
Creative Team: Helen Shortis, Geoff Fischer
Specialist Writing: Marlyn Docherty
Strategic Planning: Richard Wylie, Nicky Brugnola
Account Leadership: Vanessa Burrow, Mariana Olliver
Print Production: Cathy Arthur, Paul Burgess, Jessica Beckingham
Photography: Penny Clay
Retouching: Jason Riddell
Digital Team: Suede
Check out the microsite for the video as well: http://outsmartcigarettes.com.au/
Advertising Agency: Ursa Communications, Australia
Executive Creative Director: Denis Mamo
Creative Team: Helen Shortis, Geoff Fischer
Specialist Writing: Marlyn Docherty
Strategic Planning: Richard Wylie, Nicky Brugnola
Account Leadership: Vanessa Burrow, Mariana Olliver
Print Production: Cathy Arthur, Paul Burgess, Jessica Beckingham
Photography: Penny Clay
Retouching: Jason Riddell
Digital Team: Suede
Check out the microsite for the video as well: http://outsmartcigarettes.com.au/
Advertising Agency: Ursa Communications, Australia
Executive Creative Director: Denis Mamo
Creative Team: Helen Shortis, Geoff Fischer
Specialist Writing: Marlyn Docherty
Strategic Planning: Richard Wylie, Nicky Brugnola
Account Leadership: Vanessa Burrow, Mariana Olliver
Print Production: Cathy Arthur, Paul Burgess, Jessica Beckingham
Photography: Penny Clay
Retouching: Jason Riddell
Digital Team: Suede
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