T h e 6 0 ' s Readership/exposure research became common practice across the range of media used in pharmaceutical promotion. Companies specializing in testing physician response to pharmaceutical ads and creative concepts (Palshaw, 1968) made their appearance and were employed by clients to validate product messages and to explore the underpinnings and behavioral dynamics of prescribers. Reliable data on company sales, spending on detailing, medical journal advertising and direct mail became available and more centralized in 1968 when Lea acquired the Gosselin and Knox service. L.W. Frohlich founded Intercontinental Marketing Services (IMS) and displaying his international outlook, began audits of European markets and also in 1968 purchased Davee, Kohnlein, and Keating (DKK)—a drug store and hospital audit of the U.S.—making IMS a global prescription data company. In 1972, IMS merged with Lea for a further consolidation of market information sources. Matthew J. Hennessey “Matt” Hennessey was “present at the creation” of modern medical advertising. In fact, he was one of the creators. In the 1950’s he and his partner Arthur Sudler made Sudler & Hennessey—which had begun as an art studio— into the “hot” agency renowned for the excellence of its creative work. Hennessey had a remarkable ability for recruiting and developing talent—writers, artists, designers, account and marketing people. As evidence of this ability, no fewer than eight major medical agencies were founded by executives who had come under his tutelage and numerous others went on to managerial positions in the industry. This steady departure of talent, however, in no way impeded the continuing growth of S&H, which for a span of 20 years from the 1970’s to the 1990’s was the largest medical agency in the U.S. This outstanding success of S&H, which Hennessey managed on his own after Sudler’s death in 1968, can be attributed to Hennessey’s philosophy of assembling top-notch account teams and then pushing them beyond the limits of conventional advertising. Beginning in the art department of Squibb in 1934 and retiring in 1984, Hennessey influenced a half-century of medical advertising. The “culture of excellence” he nurtured at S&H has left an indelible mark on the field. 1 Client: Aveeno. Agency: Kallir, Philips, Ross. I llu s tr .: Bill Charmatz. Copy; Jay Lilker. (1963). 2 Client: Ayerst. Agency: Klemtner. AD: Bob Buechert. Copy: Harry Sweeney.
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