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Drug
Makers Plug Their Pills as the Cure For Americans' Struggle With Grief,
Fear
By
Vanessa O’ Connell and Rachel Zimmerman
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FEELING
BLUE?
*Includes
Prozac and Prozac Weekly, |
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At a time when Americans are grappling with a host of new worries, from unemployment to fears about terrorism, drug marketers continue to aggressively promote their medications as antidotes to the mental anguish.
"I'm always thinking something terrible is going to happen ... I can't handle it," says a woman sitting on a park bench in a new 60-second commercial for Paxil, the antidepressant from London's GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The ad, titled "My Anxiety," has been running on popular news programs on the television networks.
The pitch, part of the current battle for brand recognition, is resonating with an edgy public. Paxil and rival Pfizer Inc.'s Zoloft each had about $2 billion in U.S. sales last year through November. With a bevy of new drugs and newly approved uses of old drugs to tout, marketers of some popular medications for depression, insomnia and anxiety spent $184.5 million overall in the 10 months from January through October, according to Nielsen Media Research, a marketing-research service that tracks consumer advertising. That's 8% more than what the drug marketers spent during the same period a year earlier, Nielsen data show.
The message that many people are suffering with anxiety and depression, and in need of medication, comes at a crucial time. A recent AMA Journal study revealed a sharp increase in the number of people being treated for depression in the past decade. The increase most likely stems from destigmatization of mental-health problems, and the arrival and heavy marketing of powerful new drugs such as Prozac.
"The drug companies have to push those drugs, but it does make my little eyebrow go up a bit," says Rebecca Ames, 32 years old, an editorial director at Magnum Photos in New York. She says she has noticed the commercials for Paxil appearing after watching a television program showing gripping photos of the World Trade Center towers collapsing, killing thousands. "The commercials make it seem like if you take the drug, all your troubles will go away," she says.
Some consumers, including Ms. Ames, wonder whether the ads present the full story about the long-term effects of taking a mood-altering medication. But advertising executives argue that consumers ultimately benefit from the blunt attention to their mental state.
"Of course there's a 9/11 connection to the anxiety advertising ... and there's a connection with the recession and with the connection with high unemployment, too," says Sander A. Flaum, chief executive of Robert A. Becker EuroRSCG, a Havas Advertising SA agency whose clients include a drug maker. He says the drug ads could prompt people who need treatment to seek it out. "In these days of pressure and depression, the commercials are trying to create buzz about their drugs. They hope people will think it's OK to say, 'I am on Prozac.' "
Zoloft, Paxil and depression-medication Wellbutrin, another GlaxoSmithKline drug, are a few that have been particularly visible in recent months. Glaxo spent more than $16.5 million to promote Paxil in October -- nearly twice as much as it spent in October 2000, according to Nielsen. The company had prepared an advertising blitz to begin Sept. 17 -- after Glaxo won Food and Drug Administration approval to market the drug for generalized anxiety disorder -- but waited until the first week of October before launching the anxiety campaign in TV Guide, Reader's Digest, Time, Glamour, Better Homes and Gardens, and elsewhere. "The idea was a broad exposure, to make as many sufferers as possible aware of a new option in treatment," says Nancy Pekarek, a spokeswoman for the company. "With the ads, they might see one and say, 'Maybe this is me,' and call a doctor."
Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, spent $5.6 million on TV and magazine ads in October to tell consumers about the benefits of Zoloft for post-traumatic stress disorder. Its "Dot" ad for Zoloft broke earlier this year. Susan Yarin, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, says the consumer campaign wasn't altered by Sept. 11.
The days when the anxiety and depression pitches were aimed mostly at medical professionals are long over. Some marketers of mood-altering medications now even plug their drugs in glitzy ads on Internet sites offering consumer medical advice, including information about anthrax and coping with anxiety. "One Month Free Trial Offer!" beckons an online ad for Prozac Weekly, the new Pfizer anxiety drug that is taken only once a week. The ad, which appears during a Web search for the word depression, enables viewers to download a coupon for the drug, which is available only by prescription. Viewers also are urged to e-mail the free trial offer "to someone you care about."
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