Why Pharma Advertising Often Misses The Mark
The Pharmaceutical industry has effectively made a mockery of itself with television advertising (harsh assessment, I know, but bear with me). In the late 1980s – 30 years after television advertising was figured out – Pharma finally jumped into the game after regulatory constraints were lifted. Some of it worked – but mostly, the efforts just amplified the industry’s public relations comorbidities.
I actually believe that the industry could learn a few things in this video I came across. It’s a road safety advertisement and it brilliantly weaves together a simple idea with visual and emotional vigor.
See? It’s very hard to hold attention anymore. You have to know some things about the human brain.
It can be said that we have three brain segments: reptilian, mammalian, neocortical. Sex sells – that’s the reptilian brain. Love sells – that’s the mammalian brain. Ideas sell – that’s the neocortex. The video here: do you see what it’s doing? It’s making a stunning appeal to all three brains. Fear of dying; love of family; the reason of a seat belt.
It’s not easy to achieve this kind of remarkability. I think the Pharmaceutical industry could learn a lot from this video. So could the Healthcare industry. Why? Because when it comes to our health, we need all three brains activated in brilliant and loving ways. Doing this is very hard – and it has to be selfless, ethical and useful.
This is the sweet spot. Very few advertisers and marketers will hit it. Which means, it’s wide open for someone to take a shot.
*This blog post was originally published at Phil Baumann*
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