Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet by James P. Othmer

Author:James P. Othmer
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 038552496X
Publisher: Anchor
Published: 1981-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

I briefly worked on one other pharmaceutical account when I was asked to cover for a recently fired creative director on a campaign for a drug that treated something called deep vein thrombosis syndrome, or DVT. The best I could tell, DVT was a real and deadly problem. People who sat in planes or on couches for extended periods without moving were particularly at risk. At the time I was fairly sure I was also about to be referred to as recently fired. My anchor account, KFC, was gone, and we had yet another chief creative officer who had said he wanted to energize the agency with hot young talent, so me and my senior vice president’s salary and billable-hours-free time sheet were feeling particularly vulnerable. And even though I wasn’t completely morally opposed to working on the DVT med business, I knew it was a risk for my reputation and standing within the agency ranks. This is because, although pharma business is incredibly lucrative for agencies, it is mostly considered an unimaginative and unrewarding quagmire—a creative ghetto.

Generally, pharma work at a mainstream agency (there are many solid agencies that specialize in pharmaceutical ads) is often given to a creative team that is willing to take a lot of shit and probably is not considered “hot” or terribly creative at the time. More often than not, they’re older, without an account to bill their hours against, and near the end of the line. So I spent a week working with an art director and seventy-five lawyers trying to settle on legally acceptable copy to accompany the visual of a digital ball of flame coursing heart-bound through the veins of unsuspecting, recumbent humans. On couches. In airplane seats. On park benches. At one point I suggested an electric chair but was told with a straight face by a junior account person half my age that this would be too distracting. It would take attention away from the solution.

Thankfully, something happened beyond my control (FDA intervention? a new strategy? or perhaps they realized I was completely incapable of taking this seriously), and my tour of duty on the pharma front came to an end.

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