Johnson and Johnson MSD has appointed Manning Selvage and Lee
(MS&L) to work on UK and international PR for anti-diarrhoea drug
Imodium.
The programme will target health professionals in a classic ’top down’
campaign. The aim is to challenge the preconception that diarrhoea is a
way of the body ridding itself of some kind of poison and therefore it
should be suffered in silence and not treated.
The PR campaign will present research which challenges this belief.
MS&L, whose healthcare clients include SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo
Wellcome, will also work on an international consumer campaign for
Imodium.
The consultancy will develop a core programme which will be presented to
franchise teams from across the globe, with the possibility of MS&L
affiliates winning more work. Charles Barker BSMG handles consumer PR
for Imodium in the UK.
Frances Beves, MS&L’s director of healthcare, said the agency was
excited to be working on an OTC product, after a shift towards ethical
work in the past few years.
MS&L was approached by Johnson and Johnson MSD to pitch for the account,
which it won after a three-way contest. Johnson and Johnson MSD is a
joint marketing initiative between Johnson and Johnson and drugs company
Merck Sharp and Dohme.
- MS&L has also been appointed to handle a business-to-business PR
campaign for drug-delivery company SkyPharma and to promote a growth
hormone therapy for Danish company Novo Nordisk.
