8 J Cooper Media, Tech Campaigns

when more is not enough The birth story of the world’s only treatment for Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder

Why make another pharmaceutical? More and more prescription drugs are being developed and sold which can be lifestyle enhancing rather than life-saving. So in response to the marketing and advertising tactics of the pharmaceutical industry I created a fictional marketing campaign to launch my own magic-bullet lifestyle pharmaceutical HAVIDOL™.

Why HAVIDOL ?

I wanted to create the entire drug marketing process. In order to do so it quickly became clear I had to follow these necessary steps.

Find or invent a new disorder (wherein a need is first found and then the disorder is penned)

Name and brand the new drug

Develop a good looking pill

Generate promotional merchandise

Create a Website, TV and print advertisements.

What is HAVIDOL ?

4 TV Spots

8 Print Ads

2 Billboards

Pill Sculptures

Merchandise

Website http:// havidol .com

Each print ad was designed for a particular mass readership magazine, tailored to fit their demographic.

Importance of the website

Global

HAVIDOL has been translated into multiple languages and made contributions to documentaries in the UK and Switzerland.

Populist

Reached beyond an art audience

Resonated with healthcare professionals, patients, academics, researchers,teachers

Viral

HAVIDOL received half a million hits in its first month.

112,000 search results for HAVIDOL

60,000 for DSACDAD

Reactions

The website provided an online form for visitors to leave comments. Feedback took all forms including:

Anger / Criticism

Appreciation

Collaboration

Confusion

Entering the spirit of the work

Complex Relationship between the ads and the consumer

Print and TV DTC Ads

appear to affect prescribing practices for better or worse

are often inaccurate,

frequently in violation of FDA regulations

promote inappropriate use

increase the price of drugs

Campaigning with new media

Whether you are are culture jamming or actually trying to sell pharmaceuticals, electronic media offers serious advantages over traditional media.

Benefits can include

low cost content delivery

targeted

potentially more informative

potentially more engaging

For drug marketers there is the added benefit of gathering personal information and masquerading as health information.

Outcomes of HAVIDOL

The drug industry is so fraught with problems it will take more than banning DTCA to fix them. However 22 million Americans currently take psychotropic medication, most for relatively mild conditions.