Three Adverts That Show The Pitfalls Of Marketing Medicines

Arguably the single most complex area of life science marketing is in attempts to market medicines.

Part of this is based on the law; according to both the Advertising Standards Agency and the Human Medicines Regulations, prescription medication cannot be marketed directly to customers, limiting marketing to products that can be bought on shelves.

However, whilst many adverts are clear about the effects of their products, some either lack that clarity or manage to showcase one of the potential pitfalls found when marketing products designed to help people feel better.

Centrum

One of the oddest advertising failures out there, the Tom Hiddleston-led advert for multivitamin Centrum in China would seem to have all the makings of success.

Take a film star known for being a bit of a heartthrob, have him be romantic and nice, and stick a bottle of vitamins into the frame. Surely nothing can go wrong, right?

Unfortunately, the silent protagonist, first-person perspective and Tom Hiddlestone’s baffling pauses, capped off by him almost slamming the bottle into the middle of the table makes him come off as surprisingly creepy.

Oral-B

One common issue with many adverts is that in their attempt to sell a brand rather than a product, they forget to explain what it is they are actually selling.

Interestingly enough, the Lorna Nickson-led Oral-B toothpaste advert has the exact opposite problem, assuming the audience has never seen a toothbrush before and relying on every single hackneyed trope of dental advertising, right down to biting an apple at the end.

HeadOn

Keeping your advert simple is a great way to ensure you stay on-brand, on topic and get your message across as clearly and succinctly as possible.

The makers of migraine relief product HeadOn understood this so greatly that their advert has exactly five spoken words in it. However, they are spoken so repetitively and so aggressively that they caused more migraines than they helped soothe.