Actress and singer Queen Latifah recently took her passion for heart disease awareness live on social media, leading a “Rise Above Heart Failure” panel discussion on Facebook Live on World Heart Day. Novartis sponsored the American Heart Association's effort.
Novartis has struggled to gain share with its heart failure med Entresto because of the treatment's high price tag, despite strong endorsements from leading cardiac groups and published research advising physicians to switch to the drug. And using a softer-style disease awareness campaign with a very likable celebrity is a contrast to its harder-hitting Entresto DTC marketing, which sparked protests from cardiologists and consumers for its stark depiction equating heart failure to a room filling with water while a patient calmly reads the paper (read “All We Have to Fear is... Scary #Pharma Disease Awareness Ads!”; http://sco.lt/96jYR7).
That ad was quickly discontinued, replaced this spring with more sentimental ads featuring older heart failure patients warbling the Annie show tune "Tomorrow" as they go about their day (read “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, After DTC, Sales Will Come for Entresto, Bet Your Bottom Dollar!”; http://sco.lt/7L6LHl).
“The way people look for health information is constantly evolving, and we do our best to keep up with the needs of our audiences,” a Novartis spokesman said in an email interview with FiercePharma. “We were drawn by the potential of Facebook Live to reach a wide audience in real time, to facilitate live engagement, and to allow on-demand viewing.”
Novartis will be launching a “new social media initiative for the HF community” in the coming months, he added.
Latifah has been the spokesperson for Rise Above since it launched last year. Novartis approached her and her mother Rita Owens, and they joined the effort as a way to amp up the conversation around heart failure and inspire people to make small changes in their daily lives to manage the disease. Owens was diagnosed with heart failure after she passed out as school teacher while in her early 50s, and before that, she didn’t know she had heart problems.
Both Latifah and her mother participate in events, videos, media interviews and on social media as part of the initiative
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