MarketingRx roundup: Sanofi debuts branded 'Just the Flu' ad; Pfizer, BioNTech promote boosters with college football

2022-09-20

疫苗抗体合作

A wolf strides through a restaurant, down a city street and into a hospital in Sanofi’s new TV ad for its flu vaccines Fluzone and Flublok. The voiceover speaks in the low voice of the wolf who’s wearing a sheepskin on his back: “Don’t mind me, I’m just the flu.”

Meanwhile, people cough vigorously or even collapse as the realistic computer-generated wolf walks by. A medical professional finally blocks its way into the hospital and sends the wolf scurrying — and the sheepskin flying off its back.

The advertised products Fluzone high-dose quadrivalent are approved for adults 65 and older while Flublok quadrivalent is for adults 18 and older. The new commercial ends with a prominent Sanofi logo over three healthcare professionals (two wearing Sanofi’s brand color purple) and the reminder that “This flu season, you do have a choice. Choose the protection of a Sanofi flu vaccine.”

While Sanofi has run ads for the brands before — including one memorable Fluzone with a hedgehog spokescharacter — the then-Sanofi Pasteur vaccine division was not prominent. Earlier this year, Sanofi rebranded the pharma under a singular Sanofi identity and logo, leaving the Pasteur and Genzyme names behind.

The branded ads follow Sanofi’s flu vaccine awareness campaign with Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander that debuted last week.

Pfizer, BioNTech partner with Southeast Conference for Covid-19 booster TV ad

Pfizer and BioNTech are teaming up with the southern college football league to encourage Covid-19 booster shots. The new TV ad celebrates the details of Saturday college games in the Southeastern Conference with highlights and videos of teams, including LSU, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. And coincidentally in some of the states with the lowest full vaccination rates in the country — six of the top 10, according to federal data.

“Saturdays don’t just happen, Saturdays are in the details,” the voiceover says, adding “Pfizer and the SEC are teaming up to remind fans to get an updated Covid booster shot.”

(And yes, I know this is just one week after I said no football weekends for me — so thanks football fans for the tip!)

AstraZeneca rolls out antibody TV commercial with cancer survivor and actor Jeff Bridges

As part of AstraZeneca’s “Up the Antibodies” campaign to raise awareness and support for people living with immunocompromised conditions as Covid-19 continues to spread, actor Jeff Bridges is speaking out in a new TV ad.

Bridges carries his guitar in the woods, quietly talking about missing out on being with his family and friends and making movies while he was “away” during chemotherapy treatments for cancer treatment, complicated by being infected by Covid-19.

“My immune system was totally shot. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait around for the worst — you can up your antibodies before Covid comes knocking,” he says.

Celsion changes its name to Imunon

Clinical-stage biotech Celsion is changing its name to Imunon, effective Wednesday. The new name better reflects the company’s work in immunology, specifically in immune-oncology and vaccines, the company explained in a news release.

President and CEO Corinne Le Goff, who was most recently served as chief commercial officer at Moderna, said the name change underscores “our commitment to create a new category of medicines leveraging our proprietary plasmid DNA technology platform.”

Horizon donates to establish patient advocacy program at Notre Dame

Horizon Therapeutics is backing a new kind of patient program at the University of Notre Dame that aims to help students in the sciences learn through rare disease study and collaborations. The founding five-year gift of an undisclosed sum for the programming “advances training, outreach and research to better serve the rare disease community,” Horizon and Notre Dame said in press releases.

Ad business worst among industries at handling layoffs with compassion, report says

While not specific to pharma marketing and advertising, the broader advertising and media industry came in dead last at handling layoffs with empathy, according to a new study. JobSage conducted a survey of 1,000 laid-off employees about their experiences and found that advertising and media were ranked worst at layoffs by 83%, ranking just below hospitality (79%) and engineering (74%), according to a Capitol Communicator article.

Among the issues noted as poor form was inconvenient timing such as before a holiday, no space to process the news and no opportunities to ask questions.

Marketing moves

Havas Health and You named Laura Mizrahi as chief creative officer of its flagship H4B Chelsea health and wellness agency. Mizrahi joins Havas from FCB Health New York and has worked on big name pharma brands including Cialis, Trulicity and Skyrizi.