T h e 6 0 ' s disclosure—medical advertising and medical advertising agencies thrived in the 1960's. Fundamental to the expansion of medical advertising was the continued, phenomenal success of agency clients, the pharmaceutical manufacturers. The wonder drugs of the 1950's were followed by comparable advances in the 1960's. The period saw the first $100,000,000 brand, Valium (Roche) and as sales grew so did promotional budgets. Suffice to say, the regulatory burdens imposed did not succeed in diverting the investment or reducing the impact of advertising and promotion to prescribing audiences. Paul Klemtner ( 1905— 1997) Among the founders of early medical advertising agencies, Paul Klemtner stands out for his prowess as a business man in contrast to the more typical creative background of his peers. Klemtner’s expertise was accounting and finance and it was in his capacity as a consultant on marketing operations that he first came into prominence. In the late 1930‘s, he recommended that companies redirect their sales forces from calls on dispensing physicians and pharmacists to MDs who were prescribers of patented, brand-name products and to reduce product lines and concentrate on the more profitable brands. This was sound advice for an industry that was changing from generic products to “specialty” drugs—the fruits of more advanced scientific research. It was logical that he would expand his consulting services to include advertising and promotion and he set up an agency in 1942. He prided himself in delegating the creative side to others but he took a keen interest in new technology for medical communications. He championed audio-visual projects and pioneered cassettes and LP records for medical education. At his initiative, the agency conducted the first closed- circuit TV broadcast to physicians. He sold Lilly on televising the announcement of the findings of the Salk polio trials. Fifty-thousand physicians attended the event at 50 locations, in what is probably still a record for a TV project of this kind. Klemtner, always a precise planner, had as his goal retiring at age 60, and he did so in 1965, selling shares of the agency to the managerial group. He moved to Florida for what proved an extended retirement, passing away at age 92 in 1997. 4 7
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