Lipitor ads under fire

Row Row Row Your Boat

The commotion in the packed congressional hearing room quiets down as the committee chairman brings his gavel down and calls the meeting to order. From the line of photographers in front of the witness table the clacking of camera shutters quiets and tails off as congressmen murmur final requests to their aides. The committee chairman leans in toward his microphone to ask the first question

Chairman: “Dr. Jarvik, are you now, or have you ever been a sculler?”

Dr. Robert Jarvik puts a hand over his microphone as his attorney whispers in his ear. After a moment, Dr. Jarvik returns to the microphone, hesitates for a moment, and finally speaks: “No. I am not a sculler.”

The crowd gasps. Pandemonium breaks out. Gentle ladies faint. Camera shutters begin clacking wildly. Mrs. Jarvik weeps quietly behind her husband. The committee chairman brings his gavel down again and again

Chairman: “Order! Order!”

This is what happens when you pretend to row a boat while selling drugs.

Much ado

You’ve probably seen the television ad where Dr. Robert Jarvik – the inventor of the artificial heart – makes his pitch for the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Lipitor while we watch footage of him rowing around a mountain lake in a one-man racing shell.

Thing is, Dr. Jarvik is not a sculler.

Dr. O.H. Frazier – described as Dr. Jarvik’s longtime collaborator – told the New York Times, “He’s about as much an outdoorsman as Woody Allen. He can’t row.”

Rowing a one-man racing shell looks easy, but an inexperienced sculler will spend more time in the water than in the boat. That’s why the advertising agency that made the Lipitor ad hired a sculler who bore a striking resemblance to Dr. Jarvik. They didn’t want to show just anyone rowing around the lake, they wanted us to think it was the good doctor out there. In fact, they even set up a racing shell on a platform to shoot some close-up footage of Dr. Jarvik “rowing.”

The ad agency that made the commercial declined to comment for the Times article, and representatives for Pfizer (the maker of Lipitor) also decided to keep mum. But the guy who actually rowed the boat sang like a canary.

In the April 2006 issue of the Lake Washington Rowing Club newsletter, sculler Dennis Williams offered a lively, detail-packed account of his three-day shoot as a stand-in for Dr. Jarvik. He titled his piece, “LightsCameraAttentionRow! (or My Brief Career as a Drug Pusher).”

Drug pusher. The guys at Pfizer have got to love that one.

TV window dressing

The Times reports that John D. Dingell (chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce) is looking into Dr. Jarvik’s claim that he himself is taking Lipitor, and if the ads give consumers a “false impression.”

Dr. David J. Triggle, a pharmacologist who has written about the advertising of drugs, told the Times, “Since he used a body double, that’s dishonesty.”

Dr. Triggle is right, and Representative Dingell has a job to do, but questions about Dr. Jarvik’s Lipitor use and rowing ability are very small potatoes compared to a much more important question: Are the life-saving claims of statin drugs misleading?

In the e-Alert “Mad Men” (2/4/08), I told you about an excellent expos of statin drug research that made this very strong case: Statin use may lower cholesterol, but it does not significantly reduce the risk of heart attack or death in most patients.

When we turn on our televisions these days, we know we can’t believe our eyes. Dogs and cats have conversations. Babies buy stock. Cars go surfing on an ocean wave made of asphalt. Dr. Jarvik’s “rowing” is the least of our concerns.

But here’s what congress should be investigating: The millions of our tax dollars devoted to the Medicare and Medicaid purchase of statin drugs for all those patients who are receiving scant heart benefits, if any.

And then, from THAT perspective, congress should examine the advertisements. Images of the rowing doctor may offer a “false impression,” but that’s just window dressing. Is there something far more deceptive going on here?

Sources:
“Drug Ads Raise Questions for Heart Pioneer” Stephanie Saul, The New York Times, 2/7/08, nytime.com
“LightsCameraAttentionRow! (or My Brief Career as a Drug Pusher)” Dennis Williams, Lake Washington Rowing Club Newsletter, April 2006, lakewashingtonrowing.com