Remember Digger?
A couple of years ago the pharmaceutical giant Novartis launched a marketing campaign for their drug Lamisil. Lamisil was the tradename for an oral antifungal medication. The primary use of the drug was to treat toenail fungus.
As a prescription medicine, the idea of the marketing was to convince consumers to ask their doctor for a scrip for Lamisil. The biggest hurdle in doing that was to get people aware of the existence of toenail fungus. I don’t know about you, but I don’t spend a great deal of time critically examining my toenails for signs of health.
So the advertising brainiacs in charge of the campaign decided on a tried and true solution: they created an animated personification of the disease to explain what was so terrible about having toenail fungus. Enter Digger. A commercial from the original ad campaign is shown below.
As the animated avatar for a fungal infection, Digger walks the fine line between being cute and annoying at the same time. Sort of like the in-law with the store of great jokes, who stays three days too long on a visit. Or the bedraggled looking street cat that lets you pet it and purrs, then turns and claws the crap out of your hand and wrist.
Lamisil lost patent protection in 2007, at which time generic competition came onto the prescription market. That was about the time the TV commercials stopped running. With generic competition and the accompanying loss of market share, heavy advertising probably reduced the profitability of the Lamisil brand.
After all, if you’re spending big bucks on TV ads to make people aware of the existence of the disease your drug treats, and then people end up buying the generic because of lower copays, all your ads are doing is driving sales for your competitor. So you drop the ads, lower your price, and you can still make more money on lower sales volume. Television advertising is expensive. It costs vastly more to market a drug than it does to manufacture and distribute it.
Fast forward to today. Novartis has launched a topical version of Lamisil as an over the counter medication. The most common reason folks pop into Walgreens to pick up antifungals is to treat athlete’s foot. Now, profit margins on over the counter meds can be pretty good, but you have to support the brand with marketing.
So Digger has been resurrected, this time as athlete’s foot fungus. You can see the new ad here.
So not only are pharmaceuticals resurrected in new formulations, but now the drug mascots are being reused as well. Maybe there really is nothing new under the sun.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Will wonders never cease?
I didn't think it was possible.
I found a thoughtful, well-written article on the CBS website. It points out the Obamacare healthcare reform proposals are being sold on the basis that "reform" is necessary to reduce health care spending, but that the current proposals will, in fact, increase health care spending and make access to healthcare scarcer, not more availible.
The idea that it was thoughtful and well-written doesn't surprise me. Across the political spectrum, there are many excellent writers. For example, Paul Krugman irritates the hell out of me, but he writes well. Robert Reich has been known to cause me to actually froth at the mouth. Real foam, no kidding. But it is because he scores his points so well that he irks me so badly.
And it is not that the article pointed out flaws in the administration's healthcare proposals. I completely agreed with the points that were made. I am, after all, only slightly to the right...of Attila the Hun.
No, it was that the article appeared on the CBS website. I would have thought that as a bastion of the Eastern establishment, a pillar of the mainstream media, CBS would, if anything, be cheerleading for the administration's proposals.
What's next? Will Rachel Maddow start opposing sending more troops to Afghanistan?
I found a thoughtful, well-written article on the CBS website. It points out the Obamacare healthcare reform proposals are being sold on the basis that "reform" is necessary to reduce health care spending, but that the current proposals will, in fact, increase health care spending and make access to healthcare scarcer, not more availible.
The idea that it was thoughtful and well-written doesn't surprise me. Across the political spectrum, there are many excellent writers. For example, Paul Krugman irritates the hell out of me, but he writes well. Robert Reich has been known to cause me to actually froth at the mouth. Real foam, no kidding. But it is because he scores his points so well that he irks me so badly.
And it is not that the article pointed out flaws in the administration's healthcare proposals. I completely agreed with the points that were made. I am, after all, only slightly to the right...of Attila the Hun.
No, it was that the article appeared on the CBS website. I would have thought that as a bastion of the Eastern establishment, a pillar of the mainstream media, CBS would, if anything, be cheerleading for the administration's proposals.
What's next? Will Rachel Maddow start opposing sending more troops to Afghanistan?
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
A new milestone in American eating!
Who says the spirit of innovation is dead? Who claims that nothing is invented here anymore, that America's best days are behind us? I cry No! The spirit that inspired our forefathers breathes within us yet.
The Wisconsin state fair is in full swing up in West Allis, WI (part of the Greater Allis metroplex). On the midway, inbetween the Ferris wheel and the prize steers, along with the funnel cakes and corn dogs, a new champion has emerged. Chocolate covered bacon. You heard me aright, citizens. American ingenuity has found a way to marry pork products and milk chocolate. Not stopping there, this new food item is actually served on a stick, for the culinary convenience of the consumer.
Bacon on a stick would be invention enough for some, more timid nations. Combining meat and milk chocolate would be too radical in lesser peoples. But in this great land of ours, the sky's the limit when it comes to increasing the caloric density of foodstuffs, whilst simultaneously making it easier to eat one handed.
Is this a great country, or what?
It makes you wonder what new comestible is still merely a gleam in some bold entrepreneur's eye. Caramel coated spam, anyone?
The Wisconsin state fair is in full swing up in West Allis, WI (part of the Greater Allis metroplex). On the midway, inbetween the Ferris wheel and the prize steers, along with the funnel cakes and corn dogs, a new champion has emerged. Chocolate covered bacon. You heard me aright, citizens. American ingenuity has found a way to marry pork products and milk chocolate. Not stopping there, this new food item is actually served on a stick, for the culinary convenience of the consumer.
Bacon on a stick would be invention enough for some, more timid nations. Combining meat and milk chocolate would be too radical in lesser peoples. But in this great land of ours, the sky's the limit when it comes to increasing the caloric density of foodstuffs, whilst simultaneously making it easier to eat one handed.
Is this a great country, or what?
It makes you wonder what new comestible is still merely a gleam in some bold entrepreneur's eye. Caramel coated spam, anyone?
Monday, August 17, 2009
Ancient China
I just finished reading a translation of Annals of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. Annals covers the history of the Qin dynasty, the revolt against the Qin, founding of the Han dynasty that followed, and includes much of the early years of the Han dynasty. Written about 100 BC, it covers the period from about 350 BC to the author's immediate past.
In my translation, the last chapter is titled The Money Makers. The chapter is a short account of some of the ways of earning money in ancient China. More generally, it lays out Sima Qian's understanding of the motivations that drove what was, to him, the contemporary economy.
Some of the historian's remarks jumped off the page at me, and I thought I'd share them:
"... when it comes to those impoverished men with aged parents and wives and children too weak or young to help them out... who must depend upon the gifts and contributions of the community for their food and clothing and are unable to provide for themselves--if men such as these, reduced to such straits, still fail to feel any shame or embarrassment, then they hardly deserve to be called human." You have to wonder what Sima Qian would make of the modern idea of entitlements. No need to feel shame over not being able to feed your kids. You're entitled to food stamps.
Or this:
"Therefore, when men have no wealth at all, they live by their brawn; when they have a little, they struggle to get ahead by their brains; and when they already have plenty of money, they look for an opportunity for a good investment. This is in general the way things work."
Or this:
"As for the ordinary lot of tax-paying commoners, if they are confronted by someone whose wealth is ten times their own, they will behave with humility; if by someone whose wealth is 100 times their own, they will cringe with fear; if by someone whose wealth is 1,000 times their own, they will undertake to work for him; and if by someone whose wealth is 10,000 times their own they will become his servants. This is the principle of things."
With very little modification, these statements would accurately describe economic life in today's capitalist societies. What is amazing about this is that Sima Qian was writing around 100 BC, over 2000 years ago.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. And people wonder why I'm a conservative.
In my translation, the last chapter is titled The Money Makers. The chapter is a short account of some of the ways of earning money in ancient China. More generally, it lays out Sima Qian's understanding of the motivations that drove what was, to him, the contemporary economy.
Some of the historian's remarks jumped off the page at me, and I thought I'd share them:
"... when it comes to those impoverished men with aged parents and wives and children too weak or young to help them out... who must depend upon the gifts and contributions of the community for their food and clothing and are unable to provide for themselves--if men such as these, reduced to such straits, still fail to feel any shame or embarrassment, then they hardly deserve to be called human." You have to wonder what Sima Qian would make of the modern idea of entitlements. No need to feel shame over not being able to feed your kids. You're entitled to food stamps.
Or this:
"Therefore, when men have no wealth at all, they live by their brawn; when they have a little, they struggle to get ahead by their brains; and when they already have plenty of money, they look for an opportunity for a good investment. This is in general the way things work."
Or this:
"As for the ordinary lot of tax-paying commoners, if they are confronted by someone whose wealth is ten times their own, they will behave with humility; if by someone whose wealth is 100 times their own, they will cringe with fear; if by someone whose wealth is 1,000 times their own, they will undertake to work for him; and if by someone whose wealth is 10,000 times their own they will become his servants. This is the principle of things."
With very little modification, these statements would accurately describe economic life in today's capitalist societies. What is amazing about this is that Sima Qian was writing around 100 BC, over 2000 years ago.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. And people wonder why I'm a conservative.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A Bad Place to Get Lost
A leading story in the news today has been the release of two American journalists by North Korea. The two women were working on stories in a border region between China and North Korea when they were scooped up and arrested for spying by the North Koreans. There is some question as to which side of the border they were actually on when they were grabbed.
After five months of captivity, during which North Korea threatened to send them to a hard labor camp for their "crimes," there was a recent break in the negotiations for their release. Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang, sat through a photo op with Kim Jong Il, and whisked the women back to the States.
Meanwhile, three Americans who strayed across the Iranian border while hiking in Iraq have been detained by the Iranians since last Friday.
When the authorities in the United States find citizens of other countries wandering across our borders without authorization, we call them illegal immigrants and boot them out. We actually send them home on our dime. When Iran and North Korea find people crossing their border, they snatch them up and toss them in a dungeon.
Maybe there is something to this "Axis of Evil" thing, after all.
After five months of captivity, during which North Korea threatened to send them to a hard labor camp for their "crimes," there was a recent break in the negotiations for their release. Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang, sat through a photo op with Kim Jong Il, and whisked the women back to the States.
Meanwhile, three Americans who strayed across the Iranian border while hiking in Iraq have been detained by the Iranians since last Friday.
When the authorities in the United States find citizens of other countries wandering across our borders without authorization, we call them illegal immigrants and boot them out. We actually send them home on our dime. When Iran and North Korea find people crossing their border, they snatch them up and toss them in a dungeon.
Maybe there is something to this "Axis of Evil" thing, after all.
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