Flu Fever Fuels Sanitizer Sales and Lots of Tweets

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Chrysler went bankrupt, but you might not have noticed as the world fixated on swine flu. As news of the outbreak blanketed the globe, it spawned some instant marketing and media phenomena. All the world atwitter Software maker IntuApp's Swine Flu Tracker, which plots known and suspected cases on the map and even includes a handy symptom guide, awaited approval from Apple to get placement in the App Store. Sharing major traffic on Twitter with "swine flu" were groups such as #swine flu, H1N1 and even CDC. The swine-flu scare helped the CDC build a public-alert system via Twitter. The @CDCemergency account, largely ignored until last week, suddenly had more than 52,000 followers eager for updates. Topics related to "swine flu" shot up to nearly 2% of all blog posts and accounted for the same percentage of all tweets, according to Nielsen Buzz Metrics. Drugstore traffic spikes A Clorox Co. spokeswoman said the company is ramping up bleach and Clorox Wipes production but isn't seeing shortages or planning ads to consumers, who already get the flu-fighting message. Some products have been diverted from Houston to Mexico City to international relief organizations. "This is a time for companies to do everything they can to help," she said, "not to market." Roche's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza are the only two antiviral prescription drugs designated by the Food and Drug Administration to treat swine flu. A Walgreens spokesperson said the pharmacy saw an increase in Tamiflu prescriptions and placed additional orders for both drugs. But not everyone is taking the most-effective precautions. One buyer said his stores have sold out of dust masks for painting or mowing lawns, which are no use against the flu, and TheraFlu, although not recommended to treat swine flu, "is flying off the shelves." Disruption in the ad industry "There's just no room for that kind of fear in a production," said AICP President Matt Miller. "If I were the film commissioner in Mexico City, I'd be freaking out." Saatchi & Saatchi's New York office rarely uses Mexico for production work but was about to start, and was finalizing a shoot there for one of its largest clients as news reports of swine flu exploded. The shoot was scrapped, and Saatchi will search for another location, said David Perry, head of TV production. U.S. Hispanic agencies have close ties to Mexico, the homeland of many of their creatives, and often shoot there. One agency, Dieste, already had a team in Mexico last week to do an AT&T spot but flew them home to Dallas instead. Mauricio Galvan, Vidal Partnership's executive creative director, said he just moved a shoot for Sprint from Mexico to Los Angeles "in an abundance of caution." Procter & Gamble canceled a regional Latin America meeting April 28 in Mexico City. Agency execs got e-mails Sunday afternoon telling them not to go to the airport Monday morning to fly to Mexico. "I've had people actually ask me if I've been to Mexico before shaking my hand," said Daniel Marrero, founder of Hispanic shop COD in Miami. "No one wants to fly there or ... meet with people who have just flown in from Mexico." Manuel A. Rivera Raba, director general of Time Inc.-owned Mexican publisher Grupo Editorial Expansion, said half his staff worked from home last week and six reported symptoms, although only one was treated for swine flu and is doing well. Mexico, pork industry struggle with image Mexico is virtually shut down for five days through May 5. Ian Cook, CEO of Colgate-Palmolive Co., said the company's factories would stay open. In an April 30 conference call, he said Colgate's substantial business in Mexico doesn't appear to have been hurt and may even be helped as more consumers buy more hand-washing soap. Meanwhile, the National Pork Board and Pork Producers' Council are hoping the government's effort to change the name of swine flu to H1N1 virus sticks. Gene Grabowski, senior VP, Levick Strategic Communications, said such a rebrand is a tall order. "You have to come up with a name that's shorter or easier to say." Governments get the message out In the U.S., the CDC has unleashed a multipronged communications assault, coupling TV, print, satellite-media tours, 800-numbers and radio with widgets, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. "We are trying to make sure our director, Dr. Richard Besser, is as visible and responsible as he can be," said Glen Nowak, the CDC's chief of media relations. While nearly all the communications professionals Ad Age spoke to agreed Dr. Besser projects credibility and reassurance, some said the relentless flow of news on how many cases have been confirmed and messaging from numerous other parties such as the World Health Organization and local health departments is dangerously close to fueling the fear factor. Ame Wadler, exec VP and head of Global Healthcare at Interpublic Group of Cos.' MWW, said, "You hear so much about it all the time, and that is inadvertently raising people's fear." She said she heard from three different health organizations on her commute home one day last week.

Flu Fever Fuels Sanitizer Sales and Lots of Tweets

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