Brett’s Blog

You’ve seen these commercials. The ones with the creepy looking guy who had something to do with making an artificial heart, and now he’s a an assumed expert on cholesterol. I hate these commercials.

However, I’m in favor of what Pfizer is doing about them, and how they’re doing it. It seems the ads have been a little misleading, so Pfizer is pulling them.

I’m giving Pfizer the benefit of the doubt on this one. OK, so Dr. Gargoyle isn’t a practicing doctor. That doesn’t erase his credentials and accomplishments from the past, and that’s all the commercial has touted. Stunt double to row the boat? Maybe that’s a shot they added later when Jarvik wasn’t available.

They’re pulling it, no questions asked. At least on the surface.

Regardless, they’re doing the right thing:

The way in which we presented Dr. Jarvik in these ads has, unfortunately, led to misimpressions and distractions from our primary goal of encouraging patient and physician dialogue on the leading cause of death in the world — cardiovascular disease. We regret this,” Ian Read, Pfizer’s president of worldwide pharmaceutical operations, said in a statement.