Evista spot is indeed strange but it's working

Jun/02/2008 05:08 Filed in: Current DTC
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Well several media people, via BLOGS on the Web, feel that the new Evista spot is indeed creepy but the “buzz meter” indicates that people are talking about it. Jacob Leffler on “short attention span theatre said “ for the record since this is a product for women, and not men, I am not in the target so maybe I am not supposed to get it - so for the record my wife was equally as disturbed by this freaky spot. She ran to the fridge and proceeded to drink tons of milk for fear that osteoporosis would sentence her to the towel only Stanley Kubrick-esque alien spa wear the women in this spot seemed to be hanging out.”




Let’s face it DTC spots are supposed to drive awareness and buzz and according to the latest buzz on the Web the Evista spot is doing just that. Unfortunately buzz and awareness does not always translate into new Rx’s and with the risks associated with Evista at least one analyst feels that Evista may only see incremental sales increases.


Although there is a lot of buzz a quick check of some posts clearly shows that women are confused by the commercial and website. One woman writes “my mother had breast cancer and so did my sister but I don’t want to trade one risk for another”. Still another wrote “I can’t make heads or tails out of the warnings on the Website so I am going to ask my doctor what he thinks when I see in in two months”.


Evista Buzz Share
The sharp increase in “buzz” around Evista indicates that the spot is indeed working
but the real measure will be new Rx’s.


So what could be done to really reach these women? Well a series of chats on a third party site like Web MD with a physician might do much to ease the confusion as well as a spokesperson to go on TV to talk about the benefits and risks of osteoporosis treatments in post menopausal women. Meanwhile Boniva is still going strong and Amgen’s new osteo drug is waiting in the wings and may also have some great news for patients concerned about cancer.

Too bad that Lilly could not take it to the next step and do more to clear the confusion around treatments but then I am sure they had some focus groups to support their media communications. Someday marketers will learn that focus groups don’t mean a thing when it comes to common sense marketing communications.

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