M e d i c i n e A v e n u e The "Wonder Drug" Wave 1 This group of agencies was ideally positioned to benefit from the flood of new pharmaceuticals that emerged from European and American research laboratories in the 1950's. The "wonder drug" era had arrived. Diseases previously untreatable suddenly could be cured or alleviated by new medication. Antibiotics, steroids, antihistamines, oral hypoglycemic, psychotropics and anti-hypertensives revolutionized medical practice. Wall Street, Washington, American medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, and the medical advertising agencies shared in the triumph of new chemical and biological discoveries that significantly improved public health and the quality of living. Medical advertising agencies had the enviable task of delivering the inspiring message of technological advances to healthcare practitioners. Not surprisingly, medical advertising reflected this technological revolution and went through a comparable transformation. Funded by sizable budgets, agencies began to draw upon the creative talent of Madison Avenue and abandon the catalogue look of trade advertising. Impactful graphics, challenging copy, and saturation media strategies were introduced for journal ads, direct mail, sampling units, convention exhibits and sales aids. Most of the basic promotional techniques of Rx promotion took shape at this time. If a watershed event in this transition can he identified, it is probably the intensive campaign McAdams conducted, led by Dr. Sackler, for Terramycin (Pfizer) and the appearance in 1952 of the Pfizer house organ Spectrum as a multipage insert in JAMA to build the company's status and as an advertising vehicle. 2 4
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