New EpiPen TV ad . . .

[SilverLining]

"Mylan Specialty recognizes that allergen avoidance is a critical first step to all anaphylaxis management plans and would never intentionally suggest otherwise."

Um. Except they did in a commercial. 

Doesn't really sound like taking responsibility to me.

Bold added by me.  They may be telling the truth. 

[CMdeux]

No, I think that they allowed themselves wiggle room on that one, but I'm not convinced that the marketing strategy wasn't intentional, either.  I think that they FULLY intended to suggest what the ad suggested.  They were just hoping to find a loophole so that people who FOLLOW medical advice on the subject wouldn't be enraged that they were being thrown under the bus in the process.

(Epic FAIL, btw.)

I could suggest some alternate text for mom to be thinking.  Or a voice-over with narration--


Oh, sure, your son has food allergies.  But you aren't one of those militant food-Nazi parents.  Not you!  You don't let food allergies change the way YOU live! 

  Having an EpiPen doesn't make you a freak.  Only you can make you a freak...


and the laughingstock of nasty columnists...
and the butt of PTA jokes...
and reviled by every teacher, camp counselor, and child-care provider you'll ever know...

  That's not your style, Mom!

  But that doesn't mean you don't care for your child, too.  No, by golly, you just aren't going to let food allergies OWN your family.  Nope-- that's because you own an EpiPen, you don't let it own YOU.
<cue music... 'Go where you WANNA go... do what you WANNA do...'>

You can rest assured that EpiPen has you covered.  EpiPen fits YOUR life.


Because that was definitely the message.  Ohhhhhh yeah-- LOUD. and. CLEAR. 
"Not to worry, owning one of these babies won't turn you into one of the "un-cool" moms."

How am I doing?   

[socks on a rooster]

Spot on baby IMO.

[Momcat]

Not until you start insisting that the school be responsible for the thing.

[GoingNuts]

See FAAN's response:

http://www.foodallergy.org/page/statement-on-maxs-birthday-epipen-tv-ad-

[Momcat]

I'm glad that the ad has been pulled.  I think FAAN should give more credit to the little people who demanded that they sit up and pay attention!

[CMdeux]

I think so, too. 

[Mfamom]

I'm glad that the ad has been pulled.  I think FAAN should give more credit to the little people who demanded that they sit up and pay attention!

QFT!  I love how they always pat themselves on the back, but they probably didn't even know about the ad until lots of other people in the community pointed it out.

[ajasfolks2]

I'm glad that the ad has been pulled.  I think FAAN should give more credit to the little people who demanded that they sit up and pay attention!

QFT!  I love how they always pat themselves on the back, but they probably didn't even know about the ad until lots of other people in the community pointed it out.

Geee, ya think?  (My bold and color, etc added to be sure this is seen.)






  Hi, FAAN!   

[ajasfolks2]

Confirming ad has been pulled. 

From Elizabeth Goldenberg-onespot Allergy: Update via Dr. John James CO Allergy Asthma:
"I just heard from the FAAN office and they said that Mylan will be pulling the commercial on EpiPen today. Apparently, they are going to extensively modify the commercial and said that FAAN may review the content before launching again later this summer. This will be a good thing!!! You can pass this information along..." Dr. John James WAY TO GO Lisa Horne, Arizona Food Allergy Alliance, and Team Anaphylaxis for spearheading the effort to get this dangerous ad off the air! Thank you to everyone who tweeted, posted, emailed, and called Dey Pharma/Mylan and the FDA. Victory!!

This is pretty.   

[booandbrimom]

I'm glad that the ad has been pulled.  I think FAAN should give more credit to the little people who demanded that they sit up and pay attention!

I think I should get the credit. I put the marketing manager's name and the ad agency in my blog, after all.    (I do have to say...I got a serious number of hits on that post, even after the Arizona group removed my link.)

Seriously, I think it's good that the commercial got pulled but I really don't feel like cheering about it. This might have actually helped moms who don't have Epi-Pens get Epi-Pens. Now they won't.

Kids without Epi-Pens. Yay.

It's a complicated issue. I hate how our community always makes it so black and white. You're either with "us" or you're not worth saving. I really don't see advocates stepping in and trying to reach these mothers and, as Mylan pointed out in their letter, there are a ton of them.

[Carefulmom]

You guys are really, really sweet. Ok...I'm officially registered. But I really need to limit my time here! (Who's laughing right now, knowing how that's gone for me over the last 13 years...)

Carefulmom, I've thought of your daughter often. We started baked milk last summer. Frankly, it's been hard to get geared up for it, since my son still had mild reactions if we cross a magical threshold. He cannot tolerate baked cheese at all. However, we were up to half milk/butter in a cinnamon roll recipe before stopping for this trial. Unfortunately, we can't do both, at least at first. They want to know the changes are the results of the medication, not mild dosing.

How is your daughter doing?

I will pm you.  I don`t want to hijack this thread.

[yelloww]

Boo, I agree. Those people do need Epis; however, I'm not sure from that ad that those people who need to fill the Rx would still USE them.

I think it is good that they pulled the ad for now.... Especially if we are going to get a flood of future ads from them once that other new Epi from Sanfio (sp?) is on the market. If we all let this slide now, what would their message be when they ramp up the advertising later? Better to have them fix it now, than let them think this is ok and continue down this path.

They need to seriously rework the message in order to get their target audience on board while not misleading the public. I think it can be done; they just need a better writer!

[CMdeux]

I'm not sure that there is a way to sell skeptical parents on the idea of needing Epinephrine autoinjectors when they are fixated on NOT CHANGING THEIR LIFESTYLE any.  These ads (all three) seem to have been targetint that particular demographic.  Well, fair enough-- they do need to hear some message that gets through to them and makes them carry rescue meds.  I'm not sure that these ads will actually do that, however, because they still seem to be slippery enough to fit into the construct that "Food allergy doesn't have to change anything." 

That is the real barrier, unfortunately, and selling devices to those people probably is not going to result in saved lives either way in that case, because they won't ever be carrying the devices continuously the way that they should, anyway.  (Just being kind of pragmatic about it-- those people really don't think that avoidance should have to be the major management strategy, and therefore, they are going to live in denial as long as their physicians and their own cognition will allow it.)

I'm glad that these ads were pulled.  But maybe not for the reason that the casual observer would expect.  I just saw this particular message as being simultaneously ineffective for the target group and damaging for the group that already carries Epi.  And no, I'm not okay with trading increased risk for a group at known risk of anaphylaxis (as many of those people are) in order to get the other group to BUY autoinjectors that they: a) won't carry everywhere, and b) have the erroneous impression can mitigate risk from overt ingestion.

I hope that the company invests a bit more in some risk psych inputs in the next go-round.  Because I'm all for reaching that group.  But I'm not all for reassuring them (or anyone else-- maybe especially anyone else) that ignorance and Pollyanna is a great way to live with FA.  The bottom line is that what they don't know deliberately choose not to know-- CAN hurt them.  Let's tackle that one. 
I don't think that anyone IS saying that it's not possible to live a life where a food allergic child eats cake at birthday parties or rides the school bus or goes rafting...

but those things take PLANNING to do safely.  They do.  That part, there just isn't any getting around.  FA takes the spontaneity out of things like that if they are to be done with any degree of safety.  Allowing people who need to understand that message to continue blithely thinking that "my child's allergy isn't like that" is what kills kids and young adults.  Because if it's a food allergy-- it is "like that".  It's going to require some thought and planning to manage.  <shrug>

Different families and individuals may make different choices/decisions about risk-benefit.  But what OUGHT to be uniform is that those peopl should know that this is what they are doing.  KWIM?

I'm not sure how to pour that into a 30 second feel-good commercial.  This is like selling defibrillators, really-- I'm not sure that there IS a fun way to advertise dtc here.  Not and be responsible and accurate.

[Carefulmom]

I'm glad that the ad has been pulled.  I think FAAN should give more credit to the little people who demanded that they sit up and pay attention!

I just saw the ad on TV this morning.  I had not seen it before.  The mom is just so cheerful about the cake with who-knows-what and the fact that he has his epipen as though it will solve everything.  Is there any chance at all that they were implying that he might have contact issues due to the cake with "who-knows-what" and that he is not going to be eating it?  Even if that is what they meant, it should have been stated, as there is no way the non-allergy public could possibly know that.  The ad is horrible...gives totally the wrong impression.  Somewhere someone will have more difficulty getting certain accomodations in their 504 due to this ad.