Lipitor DTC is finally back after the long Jarvik motivated hiatus. I have watched the new television ad about five times. The new ad is very straightforward and is a very standard DTC style. There is not inherently anything wrong with the formulaic style. Here we see everyman John in a black and white scene describing how he regrets not listening to his doctor to do more about his high cholesterol. He had a heart attack at 57. Now he vows to do more and takes Lipitor.

Ok. Simple and straight forward. No doctors, celebrities, animals, icons, or other potential distractions. I get the message clearly. Lipitor, says the ad, has been around for 16 years (although launched in 1997), has many clinical studies and is good for a preventing heart attacks and strokes. That is about it.

This ad is in that meat and potatoes category. It is safe, logical, and easily understandable. I assume it tested well with consumers, but I suspect most easy to understand ads do. I am afraid; however, it looks somewhat like a concept board. It may lack the stopping power of some of the earlier Lipitor campaigns. Will this commercial stand out among the many other Rx ads on the evening news?

Those concerns said, here is an ad that will do the job of keeping the brand name out there, not get Congress angry, and is extendable beyond white male John to other demographic groups. That is probably enough to get a good ROI out of this campaign. The football analogy, given the start of the season this week, would be ball control. Run the ball, no fumbles. This commercial is ball control.

I will be curious to see if this ad is just a bridge ad or actually lasts a year or so. I thought the Jarvik campaign had the look of a category leader, but with this one I am not as sure. The ROI results will tell all, not that Pfizer will ever make that information public. If it runs for a year, I must assume it is meeting their goals. I have always said ads do not need to be flashy or gimmicky and meat and potatoes are fine as long as that works. Pfizer needs to keep Lipitor strong for the remaining few years of patent life, so this new ad is important to continued success.

The commercial, I assume for its creative impact, uses both black and white and color. The former is used during the set up and the latter during the side effect discussion. We see the usual bike in the country visuals and the “it’s great to be alive” picnic scenes with the spouse and child during the fair balance.

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