Madison, NJ. February 20, 2008 – Verasoni Worldwide announces its sponsorship of the 2008 Innovation Summit, presented by the Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies, Silberman College of Business at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

“Verasoni is on leading edge of marketing communications and constantly striving to deliver innovation in everything we do, and we’re pleased to announce this partnership with the Rothman Institute for Entreprenurial Studies on this important program that will benefit the business community,” said Abe Kasbo, CEO of Verasoni Worldwide.

“Verasoni Worldwide is a firm that embodies innovation, and we’re very pleased to have them as a co-sponsor,” said James Barrood, Executive Director of Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies, Silberman College of Business at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

The 2008 Innovation Summit will be held on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. The program is half-day intensive seminar is designed to help the executive management teams of small, medium-sized businesses and large corporations better understand how to implement innovation at their organizations. Following welcoming remarks by Angie McGuire, CEO, OEG, the day will feature presentations from innovation leaders from the healthcare industry, including:

Edward J. Ludwig is Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Becton, Dickinson and Company, a global medical technology company. BD, which manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagents, is dedicated to improving people’s health throughout the world. BD is focused on improving drug therapy, enhancing the quality and speed of diagnosing infectious diseases, and advancing research and discovery of new drugs and vaccines.

Mervyn Turner, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Worldwide Licensing & External Research, Merck, is responsible for the oversight of all of Merck’s licensing activities, and for the management of academic relations. Through his multiple and diverse experiences in the Merck Research Laboratories, Dr. Turner has acquired a broad perspective on the issues surrounding drug discovery and development. Turner joined Merck Research Laboratories in 1985. Over the last 18 years, he has held many positions at Merck.

Robert J. Hugin serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Celgene Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies for unmet medical needs in cancer and immune-inflammatory disease. He joined Celgene in June 1999 and has been a Director of Celgene since December 2001. Mr. Hugin also serves as a Director of The Medicines Company, Atlantic Health System, Inc. and of Family Promise, a national non-profit network assisting homeless families. Prior to joining Celgene, Mr. Hugin was a Managing Director with J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc. Mr. Hugin received an AB degree from Princeton University in 1976 and an MBA from the University of Virginia in 1985 and served as a United States Marine Corps infantry officer during the intervening period. Bob and his wife, Kathy, live in Summit, New Jersey, with their three children.

Abe Kasbo

He is the Michael Jordan of the chest cavity…and a peddler of Pfizer’s cholesterol drug, Lipitor. For the past 2 years, this non-practicing MD, Dr. Robert Jarvik, has lent his name and his fame to Pfizer and now Congress wants some answers. So what?

For starters, this ad campaign is the equivalent of Gatorade’s “Be Like Mike” Campaign. “Be Like Mike Jarvik” that is…take Lipitor, you can run, row, hang out with your son…and if Dr. Jarvik, a heart expert, is doing it, perhaps you should too. Dr. Jarvik is not a cardiologist, but he invented the artificial heart. How he went from that to a pitching for the druggies is beyond me…a new low.

”

It’s time to stop. Hey big pharma and your pitch people, I am sure your research tells you that the majority of your audience did not go to medical school, so bombarding them with brand name drugs only puts pressure on the docs to subscribe, right folks? It’s makes a mocry of medicine and of the audience because now suddenly every dick, jane and harry (steve too), is talking about your drugs, and recommending to their friends like their favorite shampoo.

I find this amazing considering Americans are sold on the false perception that they have the best healthcare on the planet, and big pharma is spending billions on marketing. Don’t get me wrong, as a marketer, I welcome advertising and marketing, as long as we cut out the BS. There are other ways to market drugs, advertising is certainly one way, another would be by educating physicians on their benefits and side effects and providing consumer information on the web or in brochure form.

According to nytimes.com, since coming under fire, Dr. Jarvik recently stated on his website, “I believe the process of educating the public is beneficial to many patients, and I am pleased to be part of an effort to reach them.” [author's note - Que? What? Is this Dr. Phil?] Where do I start respond to that statement? What “process of education” is he talking about?

This is advertising Dr. Jarvik not community health.

Now it’s Pfizer’s spin mister’s turn…check out this quote from The New York Times Article: “Pfizer stands behind its consumer advertising for Lipitor and our work with Dr. Jarvik to deliver important information on managing heart health,” the company said in an e-mailed statement. “Our primary concern in all of our advertising is that the tone and content are appropriate for the intended audiences, and that it will ultimately result in encouraging valuable patient/physician dialogue that can lead to appropriate treatment.”

Allow me to interpret sil vous plais (that’s French for please for your non Francophiles)…Pfizer will sell Lipitor how it pleases. Pfizer shall use phrases like “managing heart health…encouraging valuable patient/physician dialogue” to ensure that you know that they care about you and to make sure that you buy Lipitor…Ask your doctor folks, ask your doctor…

Since coming under fire, Dr. Jarvik recently stated on his website, “I believe the process of educating the public is beneficial to many patients, and I am pleased to be part of an effort to reach them.” [author's note - Que? What? Is this Dr. Phil?] Where do I start respond to that statement? What process of education is he talking about?

Look, big pharma is not in the public health business, they are in business to sell drugs. There’s nothing wrong with advertising, and these guys are entitled to advertise and make money. But let’s keep honesty as a big part of the game…Consumers and marketers ought to demand it.

Oh and note to whoever makes that restless leg syndrome drug (see you haven’t advertised enough). My friends told about the upcoming restless leg syndrome epidemic. So I got worried the other day when I found my leg shaking a bit for no reason. So I ignored it, and it went away.

Whew, that was close!

By Abe Kasbo

Ok, so here comes the obligatory response to the SuperBowl ad, right? Well, sort of. Let me start with the drumbeat about the demise of the 30-second spot. Here’s my take, the demise of the 30 second spot has less to do with the media fragmentation than with non-descript creative, making television commercials not worth watching.

Research tells us people will watch commercials if they are compelling. So where’s beef? What happened to creative juices that gave us cool Superbowl commercials? By the way, why can’t we have cool commercials all the time? Why do we wait for the Superbowl to talk about commercials? Advertisers get what’s coming to them here…waiting all year to put together something interesting…And in 2008, we got nothing worth talking about except for Danica’s beaver.

GoDaddy got it right, do something outrageous, have the networks reject it, then do a commercial about the networks rejecting it and send everyone to your website…brilliant! Now - excuse the obligatory lingo - that’s leveraging your media.

Give me a break guys, let’s develop cool, year-round campaigns for our clients…I mean GEICO and AFLAC don’t have the markets cornered on talent…

- the following are comments added on Tuesday, February 5…

Got a flood of analysis today about the SuperBowl commercials by email. I am now convinced that I am living on another planet. Check out this analysis by the Boston Globe…A talking baby commercial? Brilliant. I guess if it was the most replayed by TiVoers, then it must be good, hmmm? Could it be because it’s the best of a mediocre bunch commercials?

Oh well, there’s always next year.