hey come from all disciplines—English literature JL to pharmaceuticals, journalism to pre-med. But first of all they must be good writers, and that talent can be nourished and encouraged but never taught. The art of writing medical advertising requires knowledge about the product and the science behind it as well as the ability to give life to the data that renders an argument for the product both compelling and luminous, with words that are fresh and memorable. The art of writing medical advertising is especially difficult, given the medium. Unlike consumer advertising where you might be writing the only ad for a fountain pen in a magazine carrying ads for perfumes, cars, food, and clothes, in medical advertising we are often writing an ad for an antihypertensive to appear in a cardiology book in which most of the ads are for antihypertensives. So how does a writer make an ad stand out in such circumstances? The good writer goes in search of a product's quiddity, that which gives it distinctness. Then he seeks to capture that uniqueness in words and phrases that bring it to life, that strike a resonant chord in the reader, that illuminate. The best writing makes the reader say, "Yes, that's it." The product is validated (and the sale is made) because the truth, the reality of the product, comes off the page and into the reader's imagination.— EH.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDMwNDAx