Why Pfizer’s Super Bowl spot promotes its corporate brand

Pfizer has been around for 175 years, but 2024 is the first time the pharmaceutical giant will appear by name in the Super Bowl. The company’s new 60-second corporate branding commercial is set to air during the third quarter of Sunday’s game. “Health care connects us all,” said Drew Panayiotou, global chief marketing officer, in a statement. “The Super Bowl is a tremendous opportunity for Pfizer to reach a mass audience around how far we’ve come, our vision for the future and commitment to cancer.” After gaining widespread attention during the pandemic for its vaccines, Pfizer is now using that platform to highlight its oncology offerings. Set to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now,” the ad uses animated lip-syncing to take viewers through centuries of medical history and breakthroughs, with figures including mathematicians and scientists Galileo, Copernicus and Sir Isaac Newton, Pfizer co-founders Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, biochemist Marie Maynard Daly and chemist Rosalind Franklin all taking a turn on vocals. The video pivots to show a young girl receiving cancer treatment in the hospital. “Here’s to science,” text in the spot reads. “Here’s to the next fight.” The ad closes by introducing Pfizer’s new oncology-focused website LetsOutdoCancer.com. The company is dedicating roughly 40% of its research and development investment toward oncology, where it has more than 45 programs in development, a spokeswoman said. Pfizer recently announced a $15 million collaboration with the American Cancer Society. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here The Big Game spot is a collaboration between Pfizer, Publicis Conseil, Le Truc/Publicis NY and others, a spokeswoman said. The Super Bowl push is the first large-scale effort from Pfizer’s new agency team. Shortly after Panayiotou’s 2022 appointment, the drugmaker implemented one of last year's biggest agency reviews. That review culminated with Interpublic Group of Cos. as lead creative partner and Publicis Groupe winning business for the company’s “integrated marketing engine” in May. Pfizer spent $2.8 billion on worldwide advertising in 2022, an increase from 2021’s $2 billion; the majority of the New York-based drug company’s spend is in the U.S., according to Ad Age’s Datacenter. While this is the company’s first corporate branding effort in the Super Bowl, Pfizer ran a 30-second ad for Advil in 2016 (a product that is now owned by Haleon). Pfizer is not the only brand planning to highlight its heritage this Sunday. Volkswagen’s showcases the brand’s story in the U.S. over the last 75 years. The pharmaceutical company joins Astellas, which will air a 30-second spot focused on its menopause treatment product, in the health care category’s Big Game lineup.

Why Pfizer’s Super Bowl spot promotes its corporate brand

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