There’s been an ad flashing by on the tube for the past couple of weeks while Canadians ate their way through the holiday season and made a host of new year’s resolutions.  It depicts a man in slow motion, surrounded by his happy family.  The captions are along the lines of “I did it” and the music is something along the lines of “she’s so proud of me”.  And then there’s a logo shot.  Champix.  Go to black.

It’s taken me about 7 or 10 viewings to notice that I have no idea what the man has done, nor why his wife and /or daughter would be so proud of him.  Hmmm… Tonight after being back on the ball for a few days, I realized that I could solve the mystery for all Canadian television viewers.  I Googled “Champix”.  Apparently it is a smoking cessation aid.  But oddly enough, the first page of search returns brings up a host of warnings and side effects from medical organizations from around the world — including a globe and mail article with this intro:

“Just one year after it was approved for use in Canada, federal health officials are investigating safety concerns about smoking cessation prescription drug Champix amid fears it is linked to suicide and serious psychological problems.”

The company’s website doesn’t appear anywhere on the first page of results.  (SEO catastrophe!) And being kind of a smarty pants, I guessed that the website could possibly be: champix.ca.  BINGO!

New roadblock.  There is absolutely nothing on the home page that tells me what Champix does or who it’s for.  There is a log in screen for a patient support group and a log in for physicians.  No where to go for the curious television viewer with a bee in her bonnet.

The timing of the campaign couldn’t be better: new year’s resolutions and all. But outside of the logo, the product is not mentioned nor discussed.  And nor is the “disease” it’s supposed to cure. And if the strategy was to force the viewer to turn to Google, the cure may be worse than the disease.

Or perhaps some Canadian Health organizations have placed restrictions on what can and cannot be said about smoking cessation products, given the litany of complaints received by Health Canada?  If that’s the case, then Pfizer’s agency should have recommended a strategy that does not include television advertising.

The due diligence of every client and every agency is to make sure that the strategy solves the business problem at hand.  Not that it simply fills a budget item for “tv advertising”.