An advertising campaign by the online pharmacy Farmasiet causes outrage in the Norwegian Pharmaceutical Association and the Pharmaceutical Association.
The background is a Farmasiet commercial showing a customer in a pharmacy about to buy a vaginal yeast infection suppository. The employee of the “Solveig” pharmacy then shouts loudly into the room to an employee what the customer should have.
The pharmacy’s message with the ad is, “You don’t need Solveig when you have mushrooms,” and the pharmacy chain instead encourages customers to buy pharmaceuticals online.
Campaigns mentioned the matter first.
Rage against advertising: – Tasteless
– Represented as horrible
After the commercial aired, it provoked both the Norwegian Pharmaceutical Association and the Pharmaceutical Association.
The leader of the Norwegian Pharmaceutical Association, Urd Andestad, strongly opposes the spot in a press release.
– The ad is not a humorous portrayal or good-natured football. It portrays the pharmacy employees as rude, rude and insensitive, says Andestad, in a press release.
It adds that the behavior of the pharmacy clerk in the ad is “in no way acceptable” in a pharmacy or other health care institution. He also points out that it violates the law on health personnel.
– The advertisement could have highlighted the design or size in a physical pharmacy, but instead chooses to create an advertisement with a behavior that does not belong to a pharmacy and in which no healthcare professional will recognize themselves, says Andestad in the press publication.
The leader of the Pharmaceutical Association, Bodil Røkke, is also very critical of the advertising.
– This advertisement portrays pharmacy employees in such a misleading way and tramples on our professional pride. We had to deal with this problem, says Røkke.
CRITICAL: The leader of the Pharmaceutical Association, Bodil Røkke, and the leader of the Norwegian Pharmaceutical Association, Urd Andestad, are very critical of the Farmasiet advertising film. Photo: Vetle Daler/Parat.
sea View
– In violation of the regulation
– Twinkle in her eyes
Farmasiet’s director of operations and pharmacist, Stig Henning Pedersen, spoke about the criticism of Campaign.
– The reactions among our pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are positive. Something that is incredibly important to us. The fact that we get reactions when we try to challenge such an established industry as pharmaceuticals is really not surprising, and we were prepared for that to happen, says Pedersen in Kampanje.
He adds that pharmacists provide important health advice to the population, both online and at the pharmacy.
– Through customer surveys, we know that discretion is important to the customer and one of the benefits of online pharmacies, but that many people find they get advice they don’t need in physical pharmacies. We wanted to highlight this with the film Solveig. For our part, this was done with a good deal of humor and a twinkle in the eye, and we’re not going to step on anyone’s toes, Pedersen tells Kampanje.
