SUMMARY

Advertising by political candidates has been growing. Total political ad expenditures in 2006 exceeded $2.5 billion. This year, with campaigns starting much earlier than usual, there already is significant ad spending in the political arena.

Although many issues relating to the pharmaceutical industry in Congress have been essentially tabled for now, they never go away. If, for example, a Democrat is elected as president in 2008, the threat of veto may disappear and Congress will again push for things like a direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising moratorium. Given this outlook, the pharmaceutical industry must take a pro-active stance if it is to counter all the negative publicity the 2008 campaign will generate.

With the billions of dollars that the industry spends on DTC advertising, there is an opportunity to use DTC to focus more on humanitarian goals of the industry.

Topics and issues covered include:

• The Permanent Campaign
• Prevailing Messages & Themes
• Emerging Issues
• 2008 Election Outlook
• Building Trust with DTC
• Fair Balance as a Test Case
• Stakeholder Management
• Employee Commitment
• Summary of the Roadmap to Surviving the Election Wars