Dive Brief:
- AstraZeneca has reportedly discontinued its entire 'Take it from a Fish' advertising campaign, including all print, digital, television and social media content, according to Medical Marketing & Media (MMM). The campaign was originally created to support the launch of Epanova, a prescription fish-oil pill used to treat hypertriglyceridemia.
- The campaign had won a Pharma Grand Prix at the Lions Health last year, a segment of the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
- AstraZeneca told MMM that the campaign was intended to run as an unbranded, pre-launch campaign. Epanova launched towards the end of 2014. In the ads, two dead fish talked about their high-cholesterol levels and joked about other topics.
Dive Insight:
Although some people at the Pharma Grand Prix dismissed the ad as being mediocre, and perhaps even in poor taste, it appears to have been a success by some measures. According Digitas LBI, the marketer who worked on the campaign, the 'Take It From a Fish' Twitter feed had the fourth highest total follower count among pharmaceutical brands, although the specific metric was not specified.
So then why take it down? MMM speculated the campaign may have been pulled to reflect the post-launch environment for Epanova. AstraZeneca did not return a request for comment.
Epanova faced stiff competition from GlaxoSmithKline, Teva, and AbbVie in the prescription fish-oil pill market so AstraZeneca may have felt the need to launch a more distinctive campaign initially.